With the Duke and Boston College wins on semifinal Saturday of the ACC Tournament, we get the rematch of the Duke win in Chestnut Hill from earlier in the season. In this game Duke won behind 49 pts from their leaders, JJ Redick and Shelden Williams, while going to the line 24 more times than Boston College.
It was this differential that fueled the officiating debate with Duke, what has been unsaid for the most part is that Duke's 24 free throw attempt advantage was almost nearly accounted for in the last few minutes of the game when BC was fouling to stop the clock. In fact at the 5 minute mark Duke had exactly 1 more free throw than BC.
Going into the rematch BC has regained Sean Williams a player who can make an impact down low, especially on the defensive end against Shelden Williams. Also, BC will have Jared Dudley and Craig Smith to crash the boards. Dudley has played very well in the ACC Tournament so far and had a fantastic game against Duke earlier in the season with 28 pts, 4 asts, 4 rebs on 10-14 shooting.
In the final, Duke needs to focus on defense and rebounding, although this is no different than any other game. BC will crash the boards and will likely have a size advantage on Duke for most of the game.
Boston College will need to take care of the ball and not give the Blue Devils any easy baskets, as they are very efficient already in their half court offense.
Prediction
Duke over BC by 1
