Duke and Cooper Flagg open as favorite over Houston in Final Four
03/30/2025 05:34 PM
Duke basketball now knows who lies ahead in their pursuit to the national title. Houston is next on deck after surpassing Tennessee 69-50 in its March Madness Elite Eight contest Sunday. Cooper Flagg and company will have a massive challenge on their hands, but are called the immediate favorite.
The line officially opened for next Saturday’s Duke-Houston Final Four battle. David Payne Purdum of ESPN revealed how heavy of a favorite the Blue Devils are right after the Cougars’ win.
“Duke opens as a 4.5-point favorite over Houston in Final Four,” Purdum posted on X.
Flagg heads to his first Final Four as a major focus. The star freshman hit a previous feat held by Grant Hill to earn his first round of four trip. He’s leading a deep Blue Devils lineup.
Duke isn’t an overwhelming favorite to beat UH. However, the Blue Devils have navigated throughout the NCAA Tournament hearing the national title chatter. Now they already have one of the more intriguing matchups of next weekend’s San Antonio games.
How Duke, Cooper Flagg matches up with Houston, Kelvin Sampson
The Blue Devils turned to a relentless defense to bottle Alabama in sealing their San Antonio trip. Head coach Jon Scheyer masterfully found ways to force bricks out of a flaming hot three-point shooting team. Especially one that buried BYU with 25 three-point baskets through Mark Sears.
Houston presents a similar deep shooting lineup. Kelvin Sampson relied on his guards to shoot the lights out inside arenas. Milos Uzan enters the Alamo Dome with a 45.2 three-point shooting percentage mark in tow. Fellow guards L.J. Cryer (42.4) and Emanuel Sharp (41.6) join Uzan in shooting past 40% from behind the arc.
Sampson is known to bring his 1-4 high offense to the court. His system comes with a bevy of cuts from his two or even five options. Sampson and UH use the system to hit defenses with screens. Scheyer will draw up ways to slow down this exotic philosophy.
Flagg will have an intriguing paint battle with J’Wan Roberts — who’s Houston’s top post option. Roberts enters averaging 10.7 points per game with 6.4 rebounds. The senior Roberts has played his entire career at UH. He likely wants nothing more than to finally bring a national title back to Houston for the first-time ever. The Cougars will head to their seventh-ever Final Four appearance — but even the famed Phi Slamma Jamma teams never brought back the national title.
Meanwhile, Scheyer brings his own three-deep guard lineup to counter Houston’s sharpshooter lineup. The likes of Tyrese Proctor, Sion James and Kon Knueppel also shoot above 40% from the arc. All three average between 8.7 to 14.4 PPG. Knueppel will be counted on to pick the basketball off — after grabbing three steals against Alabama.
Duke is already the favorite to topple Houston. But UH likely will have the home court advantage — as the drive to S.A. is under three hours.
The post Duke and Cooper Flagg open as favorite over Houston in Final Four appeared first on ClutchPoints.
