North Carolina. Duke. College basketball lore. Best rivalry in college hoops. The No. 9 Duke Blue Devils take on the No. 5 North Carolina Tar Heels down on Tobacco Road Wednesday night in a huge rivalry game. The game is scheduled for a 9 p.m. tipoff and it will be televised nationally on ESPN. Currently the odds have North Carolina favored by 6 points with the total sitting at 156.5 points. ACC bragging rights and more are on the line tonight in this contest.
Free Analysis: When it comes to Duke and North Carolina, you can throw past trends out the window. In a rivalry game like this, which happens to be the best in college basketball, it's tough to look at prior games to figure out just what is going to happen. Tonight's game is obviously in that category as North Carolina is rolling and Duke is coming off a terrible loss to Miami on Sunday. Seth Curry scored 22 points and freshman Austin Rivers added 20 in that game, but it wasn't enough to win. In fact, the Blue Devils (19-4, 6-2) will look to avoid dropping consecutive games for the first time in three years tonight. Tied atop the ACC with No. 15 Florida State, North Carolina (20-3, 7-1) has won five straight games by an average of 14 points. The Tar Heels also are riding a school-record 31-game home winning streak that includes an 81-67 victory over Duke on March 5 last season, which gave them the conference title outright for the regular season. Duke and Carolina have split the last 10 meetings in Chapel Hill. "They can be an offensive juggernaut, and especially at home," said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. "So we have to play really good defense in order to have an opportunity to beat them." Duke has won four of five in this series and is 4-0 on the road in the ACC this season. They're also giving up just under 70 points per game this season, their worst in four years. Some bad news? North Carolina averages a conference-leading 84.1 points. It certainly appeared as if both teams were looking ahead to tonight's game, as both struggled during the weekend. The difference was Duke lost outright while Carolina struggled to beat Maryland, but did make a decent second half comeback. Tyler Zeller scored 22 points, while Harrison Barnes had 18 on a sore ankle and John Henson added 17 with 12 rebounds as North Carolina overcame a nine-point, second-half deficit. Barnes, averaging 19.2 points in the last five games, had 18 points at home against Duke in North Carolina's only victory in three games against the Blue Devils last season. Curry averaged 17.7 points and went 11 of 21 from 3-point range against the Tar Heels in 2010-11. Both of those players will probably show up tonight. For each of their team's sake, let's hope that happens. Carolina has been an animal at home this season, winning all 14 games they've played. Duke has a modest 4-2 road record. How much will the loss on Sunday affect the Blue Devils? That should be evident early on. If the Plumlee brothers can stay tough inside and not get pushed around by Zeller and Henson, this could be a really close game. Duke will look to keep Carolina honest on the perimeter and if they can hit 3s, they might be able to pull the upset. Both teams are loaded with talent and Carolina is at home, but in a rivalry setting like this, getting points is big.
Free Pick: I think the safe pick here tonight is the UNDER. That's a lot of points for a rivalry game and do we really believe both teams are going to score in the 80s? That's pretty rare against two good defensive teams like Duke and Carolina. At UNDER 155 points, we're looking to expect a game in the high 60s to low 70s, which would still be a pretty good game. I think Duke can cover the six points as well. They're a very good team, but their best player is a freshman. Carolina on the other hand has an experienced group that is sure to be a force come March. In tonight's matchup, I'll take the points with Duke but the UNDER is the best bet in my opinion.
Betting Strategies - College Basketball Home Court Value
Host Vegas Runner and Pregame Pro Bryan Leonard discuss that not all home courts created equal and every conference has different values.