The American East Conference Tournament Champion, the 13-seed Vermont Catamounts, will face the regular season runner-up in the ACC, the 4-seed Duke Blue Devils, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in the South Region. The game will be played in Brooklyn, New York, at the Barclays Center, with tip-off scheduled for 7:10 PM ET on Friday evening. It will air on CBS.

Vermont received the automatic qualifying bid for the NCAA Tournament after winning the American East Conference Tournament, in which all three games were decided by an average margin of 4.67 points per game with wins over the Albany Great Danes by a score of 75-72 in the Quarterfinals, the New Hampshire Wildcats in the Semifinals by a score of 66-59, and the UMass Lowell River Hawks in the championship game by a score of 66-61 which also extended the winning streak of the Catamounts to ten games. 

Vermont’s defensive play has been crucial to their winning streak as they have allowed an average of 62.5 points per game during their winning streak. The Catamounts like to play at a slower pace and rely on their defensive play, which has been the case for most of the season. This also leads Vermont to be a below-average scoring team, which has been evident by their offensive output during their winning streak as they have averaged 71.8 points per game and have only scored more than 75 points in their last nine games, which came against the Albany Great Danes in a regular season win by a score of 94-80. 

Vermont won the conference tournament and was the regular season conference champion in the American East after finishing with an overall record of 28-6 and 15-1 in conference play. The Catamounts have played three teams that are in the 2024 NCAA Tournament and went 2-1 against those teams during the regular season with a 73-64 win over Charleston, a 66-65 win over the Yale Bulldogs, and a 71-77 loss against the Colgate Raiders. 

Vermont will look to continue their strong defensive play going and extend their winning streak to 11 games when they face the Duke Blue Devils in the 1^st round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

The Duke Blue Devils finished second in the ACC during the regular season, with a conference record of 15-5 and an overall record of 24-8. 

However, the Blue Devils were eliminated in their first game in the ACC Tournament with a 59-74 loss against the NC State Wolfpack. They trailed for most of the game except for their 2-0 lead to start the game. The Blue Devils are also on a two-game losing streak entering the tournament, having lost 79-84 against the North Carolina Tar Heels to end the regular season and lost against the NC State Wolfpack in the ACC tournament. 

However, Duke has been one of the most complete teams this season. They are an above-average scoring team and an above-average defensive team. They enter the tournament averaging 79.84 points per game, which ranks 43^rd nationally while allowing an average of 67.44 points per game, which ranks 54^th in college basketball this season. 

The Blue Devils will look to end their two-game losing streak with a win against the Vermont Catamounts in the 1^st round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday.

BookMaker has the Duke Blue Devils listed as 12-point favorites against the Vermont Catamounts in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday evening. The two programs have only faced each other once, in the 2013-14 college basketball season. The Duke Blue Devils won 91-90, while the Catamounts covered the 26.5-point spread as an underdog.

I fully expect the Duke Blue Devils to advance to the 2^nd round of the NCAA Tournament. However, the Catamounts enter this game on a ten-game winning streak, while the Blue Devils have lost their previous two games. Although I do think Duke will get the win, I can’t deny a team that enters the tournament on a hot streak, which is why I will be taking the points with the Vermont Catamounts when they play the Duke Blue Devils in the 1^st round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament on Friday evening.