VCU vs Duquesne Pick & Prediction: Why to Bet Rams

After the first four seeds in the Atlantic 10 tournament got knocked out in the quarterfinals, a surprise team is going to grab the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Last season's Atlantic 10 tournament champion VCU is back playing for the title in spite of not dominating the conference this season.

The Rams closed their campaign on a three-game losing streak, but Ryan Odom's team has put it together this week, with three consecutive wins over Fordham, UMass and Saint Joseph's.

In Saturday's 66-60 triumph over the Hawks, the Rams trailed by two points with 13 minutes remaining before pulling ahead and even managing to grab the cover as two-point favorites.

Duquesne wasn't expected to reach the championship game, much less own a winning record in A-10 play. The Dukes began conference action at 0-5, but they went on an improbable run by winning 10 of their last 13 games to finish sixth in the league.

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After getting tripped up by Fordham in a 12-point road defeat on February 23, the Dukes won their final four regular season games to finish with a conference record of 10-8, which included a road victory at VCU on March 5.

The road for the Dukes this week to make the conference championship included beating Saint Louis, Dayton and St. Bonaventure. The signature victory came against tournament favorite Dayton in the quarterfinals followed by their third win over the Bonnies this season.

In the 69-59 victory at VCU earlier this month, Dae Dae Grant led Duquesne with 26 points, including drilling five three-pointers. Besides Grant, only one other Duke scored in double-figures, so Duquesne will need more players to step up if it wants to beat VCU again.

Rams leading scorer Max Shulga missed the Duquesne loss, the only game the former Utah State standout missed this season. Shulga averaged 15 points per game in the regular season, and is coming off a 25-point effort in the win over Saint Joe's.

VCU posted a solid 8-3 ATS mark in its last 11 games in the favorite role, and it won 10 of those games straight up.

Duquesne ranked first in A-10 play in 3-point defense at 29.5%, but VCU has fared well by shooting 39% against conference opponents from downtown.

Considering Shulga is back for this matchup, and VCU is laying less in this meeting than it did without him in the first clash between the two, let's back the Rams as a short favorite to defeat Duquesne and grab the automatic bid.

Pick: VCU -2 (Play to -2.5)