Bodog Beat

The marquee matchup of this early college basketball season takes place Friday afternoon at Madison Square Garden in the NIT Season Tip-Off when two of the nation's premier programs face off in UConn (4-0) and Duke (5-0), with the Blue Devils 3-point favorites on Bodog's college basketball odds.

These two powers  have split eight career meetings and have always met on a neutral court; their last two meetings have come in the Final Four. As for today’s game, UConn is much more athletic and bigger (in the frontcourt) than Duke. The Huskies looked sluggish in their first three games this year but then crushed LSU on Wednesday. Duke has been the opposite: It cruised in its first four games but then was pushed by Arizona State on Wednesday.

Duke has won four games in a row at the Garden and 11 of its past 12. It has an 11-game winning streak in this preseason event. The Blue Devils also have won 21 straight in November dating to 2006.

The Blue Devils will have to take care of the ball and shoot very well from 3-point range to win this one The good news is that point guard Jon Scheyer has been terrific with 27 assists and just two turnovers this season. And Duke is hitting 42.2 percent from 3-point range so far, even after hitting just 4-for-18 against ASU.

UConn outrebounded LSU by 13 after being minus-2 (102-104) on the boards through three games against smaller teams. When placing your college basketball bet on this one, if UConn wins the battle of the boards Duke won’t win unless it hits at least 40 percent from 3-point range.

Friday's game is the first in NCAA history between 800+ win coaches: Duke's Mike Krzyzewski has 837 and UConn's Jim Calhoun has 809.

Get all your college basketball betting at Bodog!