North Carolina Tar Heels vs Kentucky Wildcats Prediction, 12/19/2020 College Basketball Pick, Tips and Odds

Game: North Carolina Tar Heels vs Kentucky Wildcats

Date: Saturday, December 19, 2020

Location: Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, OH

TV: CBS

Odds/Point Spread: North Carolina (-3)

The Kentucky Wildcats (1-4) play the North Carolina Tar Heels (4-2) at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Saturday. The line on this contest has North Carolina as 3-point favorites. The over/under has been set at 139.

North Carolina enters this game with a record of 4-2 for the season. They lose possession via turnover 16.5 times per game and as a basketball team they commit 16.7 fouls on a nightly basis. As a unit, North Carolina is snagging 46.7 boards per game and has tallied 75 dimes on the year, which ranks 152nd in D-1 in terms of passing. The Tar Heels are shooting 27.0% on shots beyond the perimeter (24 of 89) and 67.5% from the free throw line. They average 74.0 points per contest (168th in Division 1) while connecting on 43.5% from the floor. Defensively, the Tar Heels are able to force 13.7 turnovers every game while drawing 21.5 fouls. They are 208th in college hoops in giving up assists with 75 relinquished so far this year. The Tar Heels defense is allowing an opponent shooting percentage of 40.1% (147 of 367) and they surrender 31.2 rebounds per contest as a squad. They give up 34.2% on 3-pointers and they are ranked 126th in the country in opponents PPG (67.2).

The North Carolina Tar Heels took the court against the North Carolina Central Eagles and walked away with a win by a score of 73-67 in their last game. North Carolina ended the contest having earned a 46.0% FG percentage (23 of 50) and knocked down 2 of 15 3-point shots. At the charity stripe, the Tar Heels buried 25 of their 31 shots for a rate of 80.6%. Pertaining to pulling down rebounds, they collected 34 with 10 of them being of the offensive sort. They also recorded 13 assists for the contest in addition to getting 7 steals and 6 blocked shots. When it comes to defense, North Carolina allowed the other team to shoot 46.0% from the field on 23 of 50. North Carolina Central earned 14 dimes and 10 steals in the game. Additionally, the Eagles snagged 21 boards (3 offensive, 18 defensive) and earned 6 blocks. North Carolina Central finished 87.5% from the free throw line by knocking down 7 of their 8 tries. They also made 8 of 19 attempts from three-point range.

Armando Bacot is one guy who was a factor for the matchup. He notched 19 points on 6 of 7 shooting. He was on the hardwood for 27 mins and also pulled down 11 boards. Bacot finished the game shooting 85.7% from the floor and also earned 2 dimes. An additional guy that was a determining factor in the matchup for the Tar Heels was Caleb Love. He snagged 3 rebounds and also earned 4 dimes. He ended up going 44.4% from the floor in the game by hitting 4-of-9 (12 points). Overall, Love played for 32 min.

Kentucky has a record of 1-4 for the season. The Wildcats commit 17.6 personal fouls every game while shooting 69.0% from the free throw line. Their rate of earning assists is at 12.2 times per game (245th in the country) and they are losing possession via turnover 16.8 times per contest. Kentucky has totaled 332 points so far this year (66.4 per game) and they grab 38.4 rebounds per contest. As an offensive unit, the Wildcats are shooting 43.2% from the field, which is 237th in the country. The Wildcats are ranked 105th in D-1 in points per game surrendered with 65.8. They are forcing 12.6 turnovers per game and have let teams shoot 40.5% from the field (114th in college basketball). The Kentucky defense allows 27.5% on 3-pointers (30 of 109) and their opponents are knocking down 71.1% of their free throw shots. They allow 12.0 dimes and 32.0 total rebounds per game, which has them ranked 131st and 75th in college hoops.

For their last game, the Kentucky Wildcats walked away from this one with a loss by a score of 64-63 when they played the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The Wildcats earned 19 defensive rebounds and 9 offensive rebounds totaling 28 in this matchup. They also stuffed 4 tries while getting 6 steals for the matchup. The Fighting Irish had 12 fouls in this matchup which took the Wildcats to the free throw line for 6 tries. They were able to make 4 of the free throw tries for a percentage of 66.7%. When talking about shots from downtown, Kentucky converted 5 of their 23 attempts (21.7%). When the final whistle blew, the Wildcats finished 27 for 62 from the field which had them shooting 43.5%. The Wildcats permitted the Fighting Irish to bury 23 out of their 52 attempts from the floor which gave them a percentage of 44.2% for the matchup. They wrapped up this game 33.3% from downtown by connecting on 7 of 21 and finished the game at 11 of 12 from the free throw line (91.7%). With respect to rebounding, Kentucky permitted Notre Dame to get 28 in all (6 offensive).

Terrence Clarke ended up playing a lot for the Wildcats for the contest. He converted 6 out of 13 for the contest for a field goal rate of 46.2%, which gave him 14 points. Clarke snagged 2 boards in his 39 mins played and had 3 dimes in this matchup. Someone else that ended being a contributor for Kentucky was Olivier Sarr. He racked up 22 points in 34 minutes on the court via 11 of 16 shooting in this contest. Sarr ended up shooting 68.8% from the field in addition to contributing 2 dimes and 7 boards.

So what is Tonights Parlay prediction?

Parlay's Pundit's Pick: Take Kentucky (+3) and under 139 points

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