Revenge is on the mind of the No. 9 North Carolina Tar Heels, who will be seeking to get back at the No. 15 Louisville Cardinals. The Cardinals embarrassed North Carolina (+1,500 to win the national title) in Chapel Hill earlier this year in a lopsided victory. Will the Cardinals (+7,500 to win the national title) double down on their mastery of North Carolina? Or will the Tar Heels get their payback?
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Betting Preview for the North Carolina Tar Heels vs. Louisville Cardinals College Basketball Game on February 2, 2019
Where: KFC Yum Center, Louisville
When: Saturday, February 2, 2019, 2:00 PM ET
Line: North Carolina Tar Heels (odds) vs. Louisville Cardinals (odds) – view all NCAA Basketball lines
TV Broadcast: ESPN
Betting on the North Carolina Tar Heels (15-4 Overall / 5-1 Conference)
When North Carolina gets hot, it becomes incredibly hard to stop. The No. 10 Virginia Tech Hokies got to learn about that the hard way on Jan. 21, when North Carolina took them down in Chapel Hill t the tune of a 103-82 score. The Hokies shot 13-for-28 from the 3-point area, which would have been enough to pocket a win against most other opponents, but the Tar Heels somehow found a way to outdo what Virginia Tech did on offense. The Tar Heels went 16-for-34 from behind the arc and shot 53.7 percent from the field. The freshman pair of Coby White and Nassir Little took the wheel for the Tar Heels in that game, with the former scoring 27 points and the latter 23 points. Both youngsters, however, were non-factors in the Tar Heels’ 83-62 home loss to the Cardinals back in Jan. 12, as they combined for only 10 points. As of this writing, North Carolina is second in the nation with 88.1 points per game on 47.2 percent shooting. North Carolina feed its offense with fantastic rebounding. In fact, they are tops nationally on the glass with 43.9 rebounds per contest.
North Carolina is 2-1 straight up (SU) and 2-1 against the spread (ATS) in its last three meetings with the Cardinals.
Betting on the Louisville Cardinals (15-5 Overall / 6-1 Conference)
Defense has been a key factor for Louisville’s success in the conference play so far. The Cardinals won’t have many chances this season to test that kind of defense against a team as offensively gifted as North Carolina. As mentioned earlier, the Tar Heels are one of the most prolific scoring teams in the nation, but the Cardinals might just have the antidote for that. See, Chris Mack’s team, which runs a pack-line defense just like the Virginia Cavaliers, are 37th in the nation in adjusted defensive efficiency, according to KenPom’s metrics. The Cardinals have already succeeded containing North Carolina’s offense before, during the aforementioned win in Chapel Hill earlier this month, when Louisville held the Tar Heels to only 34.5 percent shooting from the field, including an anemic 3-for-22 line from the 3-point region. Conversely, the Cardinals shot 51.9 percent in that game and outrebounded Roy Williams’ boys, 40-31. Only two players average in double figures for Louisville in Jordan Nwora and Christen Cunningham. The two combined for 27 points in the first meeting with North Carolina, while Dwayne Sutton had a near triple-double of 17 points, 1o rebounds, and seven assists.
Louisville is 9-1 SU and 5-5 ATS in its last 10 games as the home team.
Writer’s Prediction
North Carolina wins, 79-76.
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