In the Final Four of the 2025 NCAA Tournament, the Houston Cougars will face the Duke Blue Devils on Saturday, April 5 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, TX. Both of these teams held serve as the top seeds in their respective regions in this tournament and will look to do the same in this massive matchup. This Houston vs Duke contest presents an interesting contrast of styles, as one team looks to win with their defense and the other looks to their offense to fuel their success.
Before Houston and Duke do battle in the Final Four, DraftKings Sportsbook has made Duke a 4.5-point favorite. The total for this Big 12 vs ACC matchup for a spot in the national championship game has been set at 134.5 points. Here, we break down this half of the Final Four and make our prediction for what could be a classic matchup in college basketball.
Houston Defense Aims to Slow Down Duke
The Houston Cougars won the Midwest Region of the NCAA Tournament as its number-one seed. Houston faced hostile crowds in the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 but managed to escape against Purdue before blowing out Tennessee to advance to San Antonio. Now the Cougars will face their toughest test of this tournament so far against an explosive Duke team.
For Houston, the key to this game will be keeping Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel from getting into the paint. When those two Duke stars are able to penetrate the lane, they can score or execute the lob to Khaman Maluach, which has been highly effective for them all tournament long. Houston is the best team in the country at preventing drives and they will need to be great in that department to win here.
Can Duke Breach Houston’s Stellar Defense?
Last season, Duke ended the season of Houston in the NCAA Tournament. They will look to do the same thing this year after storming through the East Region. Duke’s most recent wins in this tournament came against Arizona in the Sweet 16 and Alabama in the Elite 8. After a very impressive defensive performance against the high-powered offense of the Crimson Tide, the Blue Devils are riding high going into Final Four action.
In this game, it will be interesting to see how Duke tries to attack the defense of Houston. Duke only attempted 13 three-point shots against Alabama, making six of them. Against a Houston team that is so good at clogging the lane and making teams beat them from the perimeter, Duke may have to lean more heavily on outside shooting if they want to advance to the national title game on Monday, April 7.
Houston vs Duke Prediction
Duke -4.5 (-110) over Houston
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- Duke is versatile enough offensively to overcome the tenacious defense of Houston in this game.
- Duke’s interior defense will cause problems for Houston, who play too slowly to get Duke out of sorts on that end of the floor.
