A pair of Top 25 teams in college basketball will square off in an early season matchup on Friday evening when the 12^th-ranked Arizona Wildcats travel to Durham, North Carolina to face the 2^nd-ranked Duke Blue Devils at the Cameron Indoor Stadium with tip-off scheduled for 7:00 PM ET and the game will air on ESPN 2.

The Arizona Wildcats are projected to be the best team in the Pac-12 this season as they are +225 to win the Pac-12 Conference this season which has a lot to do with the success that Arizona had last year as they finished the season with a record of 28-7 which included a record of 14-6 in the Pac-12 conference which led to an appearance in the NCAA Tournament as an automatic qualifier by winning the Pac-12 Conference Tournament while the Wildcats also won the Maui Invitational earlier last season. Arizona was the regular season Pac-12 Champion and won the Pac-12 Tournament Championship by defeating the Stanford Cardinal in the Quarterfinals by a score of 95-84, the Arizona State Sun Devils in the Semifinals by a score of 78-59, and the UCLA Bruins in the Championship by a score of 61-59. The Wildcats were a 2 seed last season in the tournament, however, they were upset in the opening round by the Princeton Tigers by a score of 55-59.

Duke has a long and storied history in college basketball and they enter the season ranked 2^nd in the AP Poll and 3^rd in the Coaches Poll after finishing last season with a record of 27-9 and an ACC record of 14-6 which led to a tie for 3^rd place in the regular season in the conference. However, the Blue Devils won the ACC Conference tournament last season by defeating the Pittsburgh Panthers in the Quarterfinals by a score of 96-69, the Miami Hurricanes in the Semifinals by a score of 85-78, and the Virginia Cavaliers in the Championship by a score of 59-49 which earned Duke the automatic qualifying bid in the ACC and a 5 seed in the NCAA tournament in which they defeated the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles by a score of 74-51 in the 1^st round before losing to the Tennessee Volunteers in the 2^nd round by a score of 52-65. 

BookMaker has the Duke Blue Devils listed as 4.5-point favorites at home against the Arizona Wildcats on Friday evening. Arizona has won the last two games in the series while winning by an average margin of 11 points per game in those matchups and going 2-0 ATS in the last two meetings. The Arizona Wildcats are 1-0 ATS overall this season while the Duke Blue Devils are 1-0 ATS overall, 1-0 ATS at home, and 1-0 ATS as a favorite on the year.

Both teams are projected to be the top team in their respective conferences and both are in the Top 25 to enter the season which will make this an interesting matchup, to say the least on Friday evening when they face each other. However, Cameron Indoor with the Cameron Crazies is one of the toughest environments to win at and given the talent that the Blue Devils have this season I look for them to not only get the win at home but to cover the spread as well which is why I am buying the .5 point and laying the points with the Duke Blue Devils when the host the Arizona Wildcats on Friday evening.