NCAA Tournament: Tennessee-Duke opening odds

Tennessee blew an 18 point lead last night in Orlando, but hung on for dear life to beat Louisiana in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. The Ragin’ Cajuns caught fire from long range in the second half, quickly erasing a deficit.

The Volunteers made just enough plays in the closing minutes to secure a 58-55 win. Duke, on the other hand, faced little resistance against 12-seed Oral Roberts. The Blue Devils stayed hot, basically winning this one in the opening five minutes. It was the tenth straight win for Duke — now clearly one of the hottest teams in the tournament.

Tennessee and Duke move on to face each other on Saturday afternoon, with tip-off set for 2:40 p.m. ET in Orlando.

It’s a matchup of two teams heading in different directions. Tennessee is just 6-7 in their last 13 games, dealing with a handful of injuries down the stretch. The biggest being to point guard Zakai Zeigler, who tore his ACL in the final week of the regular season.

Tennessee is still trying to find their way on both ends of the floor without him. Now set to face a white hot Duke team, the Vols are going to have to come up with one of their best efforts of the year to reach the Sweet 16.

Duke opened late on Thursday night as a 2.5 point favorite. That number has quickly moved out to 3.5, per DraftKings Sportsbook.

The Blue Devils ran through the ACC Tournament, cutting down the nets after beating Miami and Virginia last weekend. It wasn’t the smoothest of starts for Jon Scheyer, but his team certainly has figured things out at the right time. A 23-point win over popular upset pick Oral Roberts on Thursday only strengthened that opinion.

Duke is now +350 to win the East Region, while Tennessee has dropped to +600. That’s pretty dramatic movement after the first round, giving you an idea of what the books think about each team going forward.

CBS will have the coverage on Saturday afternoon.

Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See DraftKings.com/sportsbook for details.