Duke and North Carolina Engage in Ultimate College Basketball Betting Match

If you were to take a quick poll of college basketball betting fans and asked them what’s the best game they had seen this season was, there would be a better than average chance that the last UNC/Duke game would get a lot of votes. The 92-90 OT win by Duke was one for the ages, and if we get a game half as good when they meet again on Saturday, then we are in for a great one. Location: Dean E. Smith Center, Chapel Hill, North Carolina Date/Time: Saturday, March 7, 2015, 9:00 PM ET TV: ESPN/ WATCH ESPN Spread: North Carolina -1.5 That win was just one of many signature type wins that the Duke Blue Devils (27-3, 14-3) have had coming down the stretch. Duke got off to something of a slow start in conference play, losing a couple early, but they have been hot of late, ripping off 10 straight wins, including handing the Virginia Cavaliers their only loss of the season. Duke have been offensively solid this season, scoring 81.2 PPG, thanks in large part to the efforts of Jahlil Okafor, who is very much in the running for the player of the year in the NCAA. If there has been a weak point for Duke this season, it has been that they do tend to give up some points on defense.

The performance of the North Carolina Tar Heels (21-9, 11-6) in the past couple of weeks has been sporadic at best. They have lost 5 of their last 9 outings, but have righted the ship a little by winning their last two games in pretty comfortable fashion. UNC are similar to Duke in that they are very solid on the offensive side of the court, but have some issues on the defensive side. The fact that these two teams combined for 182 points in their last meeting is a perfect example of what we are talking about here.

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I don’t expect this one to be the classic that the last meeting was, but I do expect to see the scoreboard get a bit of a workout. Duke have been hot in the past few weeks, and the fact that they have home court advantage for the final game of the regular season should be enough to see them through here, albeit in a close one.