North Carolina vs. Duke – 2/17/16 College Basketball Pick, Odds, and Prediction

Here is what happened.

Game time is at 9:00 PM. During this game Duke had an OE of 107.2, a 3PA% of 29.2 and hit 36% from three.

It’s an injury that didn’t help Duke’s effort against UNC.

North Carolina has won all 13 games on its own floor this season, the Blue Devils are just 4-2 in road games and their best win away from home came at Georgia Tech. Now the betting odds for the game have the Tar Heels favored to pick up the win at home. Here are three reasons why UNC will beat Duke tonight, and have a pretty easy time doing it. That was certainly the case here from a defensive perspective. The Tar Heels felt they had a chance at that title. The Tar Heels came into the season as the preseason number one team in the country, while the Blue Devils were coming off of a national championship.

Ingram finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds while Allen had 23 points.

To be more specific, the offense from the guards was the problem.

On Wednesday night, though, it was enough, and now Duke sits just a game back of Miami and North Carolina in the ACC standings. He scored at will for 30 minutes and control the boards. The Tar Heels charged down court as the clock ticked down, and after some passing, Joel Berry II drove from the top of the key to the free-throw line and launched a jumper. For the game UNC went 1-13 from three.

In the second half, Plumlee continued to deal with foul issues and Jones wasn’t able to come back in. Johnson received little help, with North Carolina’s backcourt providing little threat of scoring from the outside.

Ultimately UNC’s lack of offensive balance did it in.

“When Matt went down, I had to use my voice more”, Allen said. They were playing well, senior Brice Johnson was dominating and Duke was down to just five players. Two of those games, the last two in fact, came against Louisville and Virginia. “We didn’t get what we wanted”.

However Duke took advantage of those miscues, especially in the second half where the Blue Devils had an 9-0 edge in points of turnovers.

All that being said, there is a coaching question here on two levels. Myles Davis had 11 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists to become the first Xavier player with a triple-double since point guard Tu Holloway against Fordham on February 19, 2011…. While Johnson is mobile for a big man, he is far more comfortable defending in the post than he is all the way out to the perimeter. The players raced to the bench to mob each other and celebrate.

But with both teams trending in the right direction, Williams says this rivalry has not lost any of its luster.

Williams says the intensity of this game is always there, regardless of what has happened with each team leading up to tipoff. “I was trying to go at him and get him out of there”. The set was clearly broken and leaving Berry on an island to salvage it was wrong decision. “They were more aggressive”.

A big performance by Johnson against Duke could bolster his case for ACC player of the year, even if he’d rather talk about chasing a league championship than an individual award. This game obviously isn’t on the road for the Tar Heels, but the focus will still have to be there for Roy Williams’ team. Brice Johnson said this one would hurt for a long time.