Tar Heels Visit Cardinals in ACC Showdown
NCAA basketball continues its conference schedule with a big ACC showdown from Kentucky when the No. 1 ranked North Carolina Tar Heels visit the No. 14 ranked Louisville Cardinals.
The current line has Louisville favored at home by 1 point with the over/under point total not yet released.
On the season, North Carolina is 19-2 straight up and 9-11 against the spread. The Tar Heels are 10-0 SU and 4-6 ATS over their past 10 games played. In ACC play, the Tar Heels are 8-0.
Louisville on the season is 17-4 SU and 8-9 ATS. The Cardinals are 7-3 over their past 10 games played. In the ACC, Louisville is 6-2.
North Carolina is close to eliminating any further suspense about who will win the ACC regular season crown as it enjoys its best league start in 15 years.
Roy Williams the NC head coach was not satisfied with his team home rout of 89-62 over Boston College on Saturday, for its 12th consecutive win. His team has not faced any of the other five teams in the ACC that are ranked.
Louisville is two games behind North Carolina and second in the ACC. Over the weekend, the Cardinals were beaten by Virginia 63-47 after scoring just 14 points during the first half.
Marcus Paige the North Carolina court leader broke out of his slump of four games with 12 points on 4 of 9 from 3-point territory.
Kennedy Meeks was benched on Saturday after he missed a shoot around and became just the fourth player in the 28 years of Williams’ coaching that arrived late to one of his team’s shoot arounds.
Trey Lewis and Damion Lee the two leading scorers for Louisville were held scoreless for more than the first 28 minutes of play versus Virginia.
The Tar Heels won two of the three games the two teams played last season. In the two wins, the Heels overcame deficits of double digits while losing an overtime game that they had led at one time by 18 points in the second half.
Despite allowing the Cavaliers to shoot nearly 58% from the field, Louisville is still leading the nation in scoring margin at 19.1 points per game.
Paige became just the 24th North Carolina player to surpass 1,600 points in his career on Saturday and could past No. 23 Mitch Kupchak with six points on Monday.
Prediction: North Carolina is coming in off a much better game, while Louisville will be looking to put their worst loss behind them. I like North Carolina to win.
