North Carolina Tar Heels vs. North Carolina State Wolfpack Preview
Where: Cameron Indoor Stadium – Durham, NC
When: Wednesday, February 15, 2017 – 8:00 PM ET
Line: North Carolina Tar Heels vs. North Carolina State Wolfpack – view all NCAAB lines
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Betting on the North Carolina Tar Heels (21-5, 9-3 ACC)
The Tar Heels fell to their bitter rivals, Duke Blue Devils, on Thursday, 86-78. Their good shooting (52.5 percent) and handling of the ball (only five turnovers) were wasted, as they couldn’t stop the trio of Luke Kennard, Grayson Allen, and Jayson Tatum, who combined for 64 points. UNC is now just 2-2 in their last four after winning seven straight games.
Head coach Roy Williams and his boys, however, should be in a good position to go back consistently in the winning column. Against NC State this coming Wednesday, we can expect the usual guys to shine, especially Justin Jackson (18.7 PPG) and Joel Berry (14.9 PPG, 4.0 APG).
The two led the Tar Heels’ 107-56 dismantling of the Wolfpack last January 8th, with the Jackson hitting six treys for 21 points and Berry providing an all-around performance of 19 points, five rebounds, five assists, and two steals.
The pair’s scoring and shooting ability (combines for five threes per game), along with Isaiah Hicks’s (12.8 PPG, 61 percent shooting) and Kennedy Meeks’s (12.4 PPG, 9.2 RPG) strong play from various areas on the floor are leading UNC to rank sixth in points (87.4 PPG) and fifth offense.
UNC is 7-4 in their last 11 games on the road (3-8 ATS).
Betting on the North Carolina State State Wolfpack (14-12, 3-10 ACC)
The Wolfpack are continuing to stumble in their ACC schedule. The 88-58 thrashing they received from the Wake Forest Demon Deacons over the weekend drops them to 3-10 against the conference (SU and ATS), which was unimaginable when they began the season by winning 11 of their first 13 games.
Five guys are putting up double-digit points per game for NC State, but in the Wake Forest game, Dennis Smith (17 points) and Torin Dorn (14 points, 11 rebounds) were the only effective players for coach Mark Gottfried, and Smith was the lone Wolf to shoot over 50 percent (7-for-13). The rest of the team only went 15-for-49 for an embarrassing 30.6 shooting clip.
With that aforementioned humiliating 51-point defeat to the Tar Heels from weeks back, coupled with the ugly 13-game stretch that the Wolfpack are in, where they are minus 11.5 in scoring (75.2 PPG to 86.7 PPG), it is hard to visualize a victory for Smith and company on Thursday. The sensational freshman is indeed playing big (18.7 PPG, 6.8 APG), but him alone opposite the UNC core doesn’t look good. He and his co-starters we’ll need to do a lot AND MORE for them to have a strong, competitive chance, especially since their abysmal defense is not likely to bring them anywhere (216th in defensive efficiency).
Writer’s Prediction
UNC wins convincingly again, 90-74.
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