Arizona vs Duke basketball injury report and predictions, March 27: Latest on Motiejus Krivas and more

NCAA Basketball: Duke at Arizona - Source: Imagn

The Sweet 16 of March Madness tips off on Thursday with four matchups, and Arizona vs Duke will be the third matchup of the day. The No. 1 Duke Blue Devils will take on the No. 4 Arizona Wildcats at 9:39 p.m. ET on Thursday.

Heading into the game, the Duke Blue Devils have dominated both of their first two March Madness opponents. Most recently, they defeated No. 9 Baylor 89-66 in the second round.

Conversely, while Arizona dominated its first-round matchup, the Wildcats narrowly avoided an upset loss to No. 5 Oregon in the second round, defeating the Ducks 87-83.

With these two teams set to play on Thursday, the injury report is something to consider. Both teams have one player listed on their injury report for the matchup.

Arizona vs Duke basketball injury report

Motiejus Krivas, Arizona

Unfortunately for the Wildcats, they have the more impactful player listed on their injury report. Motiejus Krivas appeared in eight games this season, averaging 7.9 points per game before going down with a lower leg injury.

He last appeared in December and was ruled out for the season after undergoing surgery. So, he will not be available for Arizona vs Duke.

Maliq Brown, Duke

Maliq Brown has had a limited impact this season, averaging 2.6 points per game in 23 games. He is listed as day-to-day with a shoulder injury and will be a game-time decision for Arizona vs Duke on Thursday. He has missed the past four games with this matchup and is awaiting his tournament debut.

Arizona vs Duke basketball prediction

The Duke Blue Devils have looked like tournament favorites through the first two rounds. As a result, it is not a surprise to see that they are -520 favorites according to DraftKings. Conversely, while Arizona handled both of their first two matchups, they barely escaped round two. As a result, they are listed as +390 underdogs.

The sportsbooks do not anticipate that this will be one of the closer matchups of the day as the spread is set at 9.5 points. Early in the tournament, there was concern about superstar Cooper Flagg after he missed games in the ACC Tournament with an ankle injury. However, he has returned and looked fluent, which makes it hard to predict against the Blue Devils.

We will be sticking with Duke today. Arizona could keep things competitive, but the Blue Devils look like championship favorites.

Prediction: Duke 82, Arizona 71

About the author

Alexander O'Reilly is a journalist at Sportskeeda from Kingston, Ontario with over seven years in the field at companies including SenShot, RVBlogger, Monarch Media, WordAgents, GSeC LLC, and IGC.

His favorite college team is Duke, and his favorite sporting memory was Duke winning March Madness in 2010. JJ Redick was Alex's favorite college player when he was young but more recently, Caleb Williams gets the nod. As the Chicago Bears are Alex's favorite NFL team, this was a perfect match.

Alex's proudest moment came when he was interviewed by a radio station in Ottawa on his opinion on recent moves by the Ottawa Senators, which gave him a confidence boost and the knowledge that he could succeed as a writer.

Aside from sports, Alex likes to spend his time playing games. He is also very passionate about running and strives to improve at the half and full marathon distances.

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Edited by Akshay Saraswat