Analytics currently favor Ohio State to beat No. 5 Duke next week

Trust me, I understand how exciting Ohio State’s 79-76, last-second victory over Seton Hall was on Monday night, I was there, seated in the front row, just feet from where the ball fell through the net after Meechie Johnson Jr.’s dagger three-pointer iced the game for the Buckeyes. But, when I looked at ESPN’s preview for next week’s OSU game vs. Duke in the Big Ten-ACC Shootout Matchup Tickle-Fight Hulabaloo Challenge, I was a little surprised how much love the World Wide Leader’s robots were giving the Buckeyes.

The BPI currently favors Ohio State to win by an eye-opening margin of 60.9% to Duke’s 39.1%. Now, yes, I understand that the Buckeyes will be playing at home and that the Blue Devils have gotten out to their 5-0 record by playing two service academies and three church league, over-40 pickup teams, but still, this is surprising.

The folks from Bristol don’t go into depth as to why they are projecting Chris Holtmann’s squad to be such heavy favorites, but as this is part of the Mike Krzyzewski farewell tour, you know that the Schottenstein Center — especially the Nuthouse — will be rocking and rolling coming Tuesday night.

The game is scheduled to tip off at 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.

In other numbers related men’s basketball content, according to DraftKings Sportsbook, the Buckeyes currently have the fourth best odds to win the Big Ten conference title this season. At +750, that means that if you were to put down $100 on OSU to win the B1G crown and they didn’t in fact win the title, you would win $750 (for a $650 profit).

OSU trails only Purdue (+240), Michigan (+250), and Illinois (+550) in the conference odds. The completely rebuilt Minnesota Golden Gophers are bringing up the Big Ten rear with +30,000 odds. Not a bad payday for a $100 flyer!

Also of note, DraftKings has the Buckeyes with fairly decent national title odds as well. Ohio State is coming in with a +2500 live as of publishing time. That ties them for the 13th best odds in the country currently.

Gonzaga is far and away the favorites at +500 and the aforementioned Purdue Boilermakers are second at +1000. Other Big Ten teams in the top 25 include Michigan (+1500), Illinois (+2500 like Ohio State), and Michigan State (+3000).

The men’s basketball Buckeyes are back in action tonight, Wednesday, Nov. 24 at 8:30 p.m. ET from the Suncoast Credit Union Arena in Fort Myers, Fla. where they will take on the No. 23 Florida Gators in the championship game of the Fort Myers Tip Off Beach Division. I will be on hand to document the action — before, during, and after the game — here on Land-Grant Holy Land and on Twitter @Landgrant33, so please come back and follow along!