Madison Square Garden – New York, NY
Tip-off: Tuesday, 9:00 pm ET
Line: N/A

#21 Florida will be looking to make a huge statement with a win over #5 Duke at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.

The Gators are off to an impressive start to the season, as they are now 7-1 SU and 4-2 ATS. Florida has already won games against teams like Seton Hall and Miami, and its only loss was against an elite Gonzaga group. It’s worth nothing that the Gators have played some stifling defense this year. They have held their opponents to under 40% shooting from the field in six of their eight games this season, and they’ll need to do a good job of containing Duke in this one. The Blue Devils are almost the exact opposite, as this is a team that wins games with its offense. Duke has scored at least 75 points in each of its nine games this season and the team has shot 45% or better from the floor in eight of those games. Since it’s early in the season, both the Gators and Blue Devils have played their fair share of neutral site games. Florida is 6-1 SU and 4-2 ATS in those contests, and Duke is 2-1 SU but just 1-2 ATS. The Blue Devils have, however, already played at Madison Square Garden. They’ll be a bit more comfortable playing on a big stage like this, but they did lose that game against Kansas here (77-75).

Florida is off to a tremendous start to the year and G KeVaughn Allen (12.4 PPG, 1.6 SPG) has picked up right where he left off last season. The sophomore is leading this Gators team in scoring, and he’ll need to show up on Monday night. Allen can score in a number of ways, but his shooting leaves something to be desired. He is hitting just 29.7% of his threes this season and is capable of being a lot better. He hit 31.5% from the outside last year and his shot looks improved mechanically\. It’s just a matter of Allen getting them to go down and he should start hitting at a higher clip soon. The x-factors in this game will, however, be F Devin Robinson (11.8 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 1.1 SPG) and C John Egbunu (9.1 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 2.5 BPG). While Duke might have a team loaded with future NBA players, Robinson and Egbunu make sure that Florida isn’t completely lacking in talent. Both guys should play at the next level some day, as Robinson is a lengthy, athletic wing and Egbunu is a monster in the paint. Robinson will need to find his stroke in this game, as he is nearly impossible to guard when he is hitting from the outside. Egbunu, meanwhile, should dominate this game as long as he can avoid foul trouble. He is going to be the biggest player on the court in this one and must do his best to finish around the rim and protect it on the other end.

The Blue Devils are once again one of the nation’s elite teams and G Grayson Allen (17.1 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 3.6 APG, 1.4 SPG) looks as good as ever in his junior season. Allen is again a guy that gets under his opponent’s skin with his hard play, and he’ll look to cause some havoc against Florida in this one. Allen did struggle early in the season, but he has found his game recently. Over the past two contests, Allen is averaging 22.5 PPG and he has hit 9-of-17 from the outside in that span. He’s now up to 33.3% shooting from the outside on the season, and he should get back near the 40.0% mark soon. Something that has helped Allen, however, has been the emergence of G Luke Kennard (19.4 PPG, 6.8 RPG). Kennard was excellent as a freshman, but he just might be Duke’s best player in his sophomore season. He had 35 points against Maine on Saturday, and he did it on 11-of-16 shooting from the floor. Kennard rarely takes bad shots for this team, and he’ll look to stretch the floor a bit on Tuesday. Kennard hit 4-of-9 from downtown in that win over Maine, which was a good sign after he went just 3-for-18 from three in the previous three contests. Another guy worth mentioning for this Duke team is F Jayson Tatum. The highly-touted freshman made his season debut on Saturday. He finished that game with 10 points, eight boards and a block in 20 minutes of action. His athleticism is a game changer for this Blue Devils group and he’ll need to be active on both ends of the floor Tuesday.