North Carolina Tar Heels vs Duke Blue Devils Prediction, 3/5/2022 College Basketball Picks, Best Bets & Odds

Game: North Carolina Tar Heels vs Duke Blue Devils

Date: Saturday, March 5, 2022

Location: Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, NC

TV: ESPN

The North Carolina Tar Heels (22-8) are headed to Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday where they will take on the Duke Blue Devils (26-4).

The North Carolina Tar Heels faced off with Syracuse and notched a win by a score of 88-79 in their last contest. Concerning fouls, the Tar Heels finished with 9 while Syracuse finished the game with 15 fouls. They also knocked down 10 of their 25 tries from long range. Syracuse finished the contest at 87.5% from the charity stripe by knocking down 7 of 8 attempts. Furthermore, Syracuse snagged 26 rebounds (4 offensive, 22 defensive), but didn't notch a rejection. Syracuse doled out 9 dimes and had 4 steals for the matchup. With respect to defending, North Carolina let their opponent shoot 49.2% from the floor on 31 out of 63 shooting. They also doled out 21 assists for the matchup as well as forcing the opposition into 11 turnovers and earning 3 steals. When it comes to getting rebounds, they collected a total of 40 with 16 of them being on the offensive end. From the free throw line, the Tar Heels converted 16 of 20 attempts for a rate of 80.0%. North Carolina ended the contest having earned a 40.8% FG percentage (29 of 71) and buried 14 of their 36 shots from downtown.

Armando Bacot is a player who played a role for this game. He went 41.7% from the field and also recorded 2 dimes. He saw the court for 43 mins played and grabbed 18 boards. He ended up walking away with 17 points on 5 out of 12 shooting.

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North Carolina heads into this contest with a win-loss mark of 22-8 on the year. They cough up possession 12.1 times per contest and as a group they commit 14.6 fouls per contest. As a unit, North Carolina is snagging 39.7 rebounds per game and has earned 443 dimes so far this season, which is 58th in college basketball in terms of passing the rock. The Tar Heels are shooting 37.3% on shots from 3-point land (255 of 683) and 76.6% from the free throw line. They are averaging 78.1 points per contest (32nd in Division 1) while hitting 45.7% from the field.

On the defensive end, the Tar Heels are forcing their opponents into 10.1 turnovers on a nightly basis while drawing 16.7 personal fouls. They currently rank 223rd in the country in giving up assists to the opposition with 384 surrendered so far this year. The Tar Heels defense is giving up an opponent FG percentage of 43.4% (812 of 1,872) and they surrender 31.9 boards per game as a team. They give up 34.7% on three-point shots and they rank 267th in the nation in opponents points per game (72.4).

In their last game, the Duke Blue Devils got the victory with a final of 86-56 against Pittsburgh. With respect to rebounds, Duke allowed Pittsburgh to get 25 in all (10 on the offensive side). They finished 27.8% from distance by shooting 5 of 18 and finished the contest at 3 of 6 at the charity stripe (50.0%). The Blue Devils permitted Pittsburgh to bury 24 out of their 57 tries from the floor which had them sitting at 42.1% in this contest. In all, the Blue Devils went 32 for 54 from the field which gave them a shooting percentage of 59.3%. When talking about 3-point shots, Duke converted 11 out of their 22 tries (50.0%). They were able to knock down 11 of the free throw tries for a percentage of 84.6%. Pittsburgh committed 9 personal fouls for the matchup which took the Blue Devils to the free throw line for 13 tries. They turned it over 6 times, while earning 5 steals for this contest. The Blue Devils corralled 22 defensive rebounds and 3 offensive boards totaling 25 for this contest.

Trevor Keels ended up being important for the Blue Devils for the matchup. He recorded 27 points in his 33 mins on the court and added 2 assists for the matchup. He converted 10 out of 15 in this contest for a field goal percentage of 66.7%, and accumulated 3 rebounds.

Duke has a mark of 26-4 on the season. When it comes to offensive execution, the Blue Devils are hitting on 48.9% from the floor, which ranks 9th in the nation. Duke has earned 2,410 pts for the campaign (80.3 per game) and they grab 38.7 boards per contest. They are assisting teammates 17.3 times per game (8th in college basketball) and they lose possession by turning the ball over 10.3 times per game. The Blue Devils commit 13.7 fouls per game while shooting 73.0% from the free throw line.

The Blue Devils on defense are ranked 56th in the nation in points per game surrendered with 65.1. They are forcing 11.5 turnovers per game and allow teams to shoot 41.0% from the floor (57th in college hoops). The Duke defense gives up 29.9% on shots from 3-point land (187 of 626) and their opponents are converting on 66.0% of their shots from the free throw line. They have surrendered 13.1 dimes and 33.7 rebounds on a nightly basis, which is 225th and 131st in D-1.

Who will win tonight's NCAA basketball game against the spread?

Guy Bruhn's Pick: Take Duke

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