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Duke vs North Carolina prediction, NCAA Tournament Final Four game preview, how to watch, lines, and why each team might – or might not – win on Saturday
Duke vs North Carolina prediction: NCAA Tournament Final Four pick and college basketball game preview.
Date: Saturday, April 2
Game Time: 8:49 pm
Venue: Caesars Superdome, New Orleans, LA
How To Watch: TBS
Records: Duke (2 seed, 32-6)
North Carolina (8 seed, 28-9)
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Duke vs North Carolina prediction, college basketball game preview, how to watch, lines, and why each team might win on Saturday
Duke vs North Carolina prediction, college basketball game preview, how to watch: Saturday, March 5
Date: Saturday, March 5
Game Time: 6:00 ET
Venue: Cameron Indoor Stadium, Durham, NC
How To Watch: ESPN
Record: Duke (26-4), North Carolina (22-8)
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– Today’s Best Bet to Lock in Now
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Duke vs North Carolina prediction, college basketball game preview, how to watch, lines, and why each team might – or might not – win on Saturday.
Duke vs North Carolina prediction, college basketball game preview, how to watch: Saturday, February 5
Date: Saturday, February 5
Game Time: 6:00 ET
Venue: Dean Smith Center, Chapel Hill, NC
How To Watch: ESPN
Record: Duke (18-3), North Carolina (16-6)
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The Blue Devils got back on track after the loss at Florida State a few weeks ago with a steady run of good defensive performances and a whole lot of rebounds.
You don’t beat North Carolina without being able to being able to hang around on the boards, and Duke has been dominating with 42 or more in three of the last four games including a whopping 33 on the offensive glass over the last two games.
It’s not going to get that against the Tar Heels, but it”ll hold its own.
North Carolina shoots well, but it doesn’t play a ton of defense, it doesn’t force mistakes, and it’s in trouble when it doesn’t get second chance points and save its D by getting the board.
What happens when the Tar Heels don’t rock in rebounding margin? They get obliterated by Kentucky, lose by 17 to Tennessee, and get dropped by Purdue. However …
The threes are dropping for the Tar Heels.
It’s a good deal when you can hit the offensive boards. Take lots of shots from the outside, rebound the misses, score from there. But lately, they’ve been on with ten or more threes in three of the last four games – all wins.
Duke’s defense is fantastic at guarding the three, but can it also make sure it doesn’t give up easy points on the inside when it’s worrying about the outside?
On the other end, Duke hasn’t been on from three lately. Overall it’s been fine this season, but it couldn’t hit a thing in the low-scoring win over Notre Dame and haven’t hit 40% from the outside in four of the last six games.
North Carolina doesn’t have to win this game from the outside, but if it outshoots Duke from three, look out.
– Top 25 Game Previews, Predictions
You think Mike Krzyzewski is going to lose his final game in Chapel Hill?
Duke hasn’t been quite as sharp overall as he might like, but North Carolina is hardly consistent from the field over the last several games.
Again, Duke will get the job done on the boards, it’ll be better overall from the field in the second half, and it’ll be Duke-North Carolina. It’ll be a fight that comes down to a few late possessions.
The Blue Devils will will keep struggling on the free throw line to make this interesting, but they’ll survive.
Duke 82, North Carolina 77
Line: COMING, o/u: COMING
ATS Confidence out of 5: COMING
5: One week off before the Super Bowl
1: Two weeks off before the Super Bowl
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Duke Blue Devils vs North Carolina Tar Heels prediction and college basketball game preview.
Duke Blue Devils vs North Carolina Tar Heels prediction and college basketball game preview.
Date: Saturday, March 6
Game Time: 6:00 ET
Venue: Dean Smith Center, Chapel Hill, NC
Network: ESPN
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Duke’s playing better than North Carolina.
There might have been two losses in a row, but they were both in overtime after going on a roll with four straight victories including a great win over Virginia.
The defense hasn’t been great, but the scoring punch is there, the team has hit 48% or more of its shots in eight of the last ten games, and at least lately, teams aren’t as hot from three against that D.
North Carolina can’t make threes, and that means it has to own the offensive glass, but the Blue Devils can rebound just enough to keep up.
However …
North Carolina won 91-87 back in early February even though Duke hit just about everything inside and out. It was one of the few games the Tar Heels were on from three – nailing a season-high 67% – but it won by doing a bit more on the boards including on the offensive side.
No, UNC isn’t playing quite as well lately as Duke is, but if the defense can just be okay and the O can get past 70, it’s fine.
The Tar Heels are 8-1 in 2021 when scoring over 70 – only losing to Florida State – and losing its last four when it doesn’t. Duke’s defense isn’t consistent enough to keep North Carolina from scoring if it gets hot from the start.
The Blue Devils don’t force a whole lot to mistakes and they’re just okay on the defensive boards, but again, the issue might be from three. And again, North Carolina usually is awful from behind the arc, and usually, Duke has a hard time defending teams from out there.
At least, it did the first time around in this.
It’s going to come down to the ACC Tournament and whether or not these two teams can get hot enough and play well enough to somehow, some way, get into the big tournament – and it’ll probably take winning the ACC Championship.
However, if North Carolina can run Duke out of the gym, it’ll at least create a buzz – and vice versa. That’s not going to happen, and neither of these teams are going anywhere – most likely – but it’ll be a whale of a spirited game to close out the regular season with the Tar Heels getting by thanks to a few extra key rebounds and their ability on the free throw line.
North Carolina 78, Duke 74
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Line: North Carolina -3, o/u: 148
ATS Confidence out of 5: 2
5: Team LeBron
1: Team KD
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Duke vs. North Carolina college basketball fearless prediction and game preview.
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Duke vs. North Carolina college basketball fearless prediction and game preview.
Date: Saturday, March 7
Game Time: 6:00 ET
Live Stream: fuboTV (click to watch for free)
Venue: Cameron Indoor Stadium, Durham, NC
Network: ESPN
– All of the CFN Fearless Predictions
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The Tar Heels might have finally turned things around – at least a little bit.
It’s too little too late, but they’ve won their last three games because the offense is starting to make a whole lot more shots.
The offense is finally working.
They’re hitting over 50% from the field over the three-game winning stretch and were red-hot from three over the last two games. They got into a shootout against the Blue Devils the first time around and took the game to overtime – they have to be on early.
The rebounding is still great and the team is moving the ball around better, but it all comes down to simply putting the ball in the basket more often.
Duke’s been struggling a bit lately, but the three losses in the last five games were all on the road.
They’re still as versatile and as good offensively as anyone in the country, they’re able to score in waves, and against UNC – the big key – they’re great at hitting the boards.
They got rocked on rebounds in the first meeting – they were -9 – but the bigger problem in the shootout was their inability to hit from three. They’re not consistently great from the outside, but North Carolina struggles to stop anyone from three.
It’s Duke vs. North Carolina, so it’s going to be an intense fight that defies logic and reason for long stretches, but even with the latest run, UNC isn’t good enough from the outside and it’s making too many mistakes.
It’ll be tight for most of the game, but the Blue Devils will pull away late with a big scoring run that UNC can’t react to.
Duke 86, North Carolina 78
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COMING, o/u: COMING
Live Stream: fuboTV (click to watch for free)
ATS Confidence out of 5: COMING
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5: Breaking Bad
1: The Wire
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Duke vs. North Carolina college basketball fearless prediction and game preview.
[jwplayer knKwbXKc]
Duke vs. North Carolina college basketball fearless prediction and game preview.
Date: Saturday, February 8
Game Time: 6:00 ET
Live Stream: fuboTV (click to watch for free)
Venue: Dean E. Smith Center, Chapel Hill, NC
Network: ESPN
– All of the CFN Fearless Predictions
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This isn’t all that hard. North Carolina isn’t good at shooting, it’s awful at shooting from three, it’s not doing anything to force mistakes defensively, and it’s not helping itself when it gets to the line.
Other than that, everything is going great in this brutal Tar Heel 4-11 run in the last 15 games.
On the other side, Duke is hitting everything, connecting on 48% from the field helped by dominating the offensive boards. It’s connecting from three when it has to, and its defense is forcing enough mistakes to get a whole lot of easy points. However …
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The Tar Heels can still rebound.
For all the problems they’re having, and with all of the losses, they’re still crushing everyone on the boards – that’s what they do.
They lead the nation with 43 rebounds per game, and while Duke hits the boards hard, it’s about to get pushed around a bit. As long as the UNC D isn’t giving up a slew of easy points on offensive rebounds, it should be able to stay alive just enough to make this interesting.
It’s Duke vs. North Carolina. It’s going to be close for a while just because of the intensity of the rivalry. And then the Tar Heel offense will go cold for a long stretch and that will be the end of that.
Duke’s defense will do more than North Carolina’s to stay ahead easily late in the second half.
Duke 79, North Carolina 68
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Duke -8, o/u: 150
Live Stream: fuboTV (click to watch for free)
ATS Confidence out of 5: 3
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5: Watching movies
1: Watching the Oscars
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