North Carolina State vs North Carolina Basketball Odds & Predictions
Written February 18, 2009 by Jay Horne
The Duke-Carolina rivalry may be the most widely known College Basketball rivalry across the nation, but the North Carolina and North Carolina State affair has a lot of the same intensity when these two teams take the court against each other every year. The Wolfpack are also resides along Tobacco Road and these two teams have a very long history that consist of over 200 meetings dating back to the 1910s. North Carolina has been the dominating side of the rivalry over the past few seasons, but the Wolfpack would love nothing more than to change that fact. The Tarheels enter the contest as the number 3 ranked team in America with strong 2 game lead in the ACC. North Carolina has also been one of the hottest and most scary teams in the nation winning 9 straight games and they will attempt to keep the momentum healthy against their inner-state rivals. The Tar Heels are 19.5 point favorites over NC State tonight.
North Carolina State has had a really tough time this season with a disappointing 14-9 record and an equally dismal 4-6 mark in the conference. However, the Wolfpack did score a big victory over Wake Forest and backed that up with a 21 point blowout over Georgia Tech in their last two outings. Priority number 1 for North Carolina State heading into this game has to be to play solid defense. They will be going up against most probably the best offense in college basketball, and they must find some ways to slow down the Tarheel scoring attack. The Wolfpack will attempt to slow the pace of the game down a bit and force North Carolina into an uncomfortable style in play in effort to score the big upset in Chapel Hill.
The Wolfpack will look primarily to their junior forward Brandon Costner to carry the effort to bring down the Tarheels. Costner leads the team in scoring with 15 points per game while posting 6 rebounds per game as well. Ben McCauley and Courtney Fells are two other big men that will try to make some noise for the Wolfpack. McCauley is a big 6’9” center who is averaging near double-double numbers with 12.7 points and 8 rebounds per game. Fells aids in with 12.2 points per game and is more of a on the move shooter. McCauley and Costner will have to stand tall against the glass with the Tarheels considering North Carolina is one of the best teams in the nation in rebounding. North Carolina State must grab every 2nd chance opportunity possible in attempt to become the 2nd unranked team this year to take down the Tarheels.
North Carolina sports one of the fastest scoring teams in the land averaging an NCAA 2nd best 92 points per game. The Tarheels are a strong 11-1 in Chapel Hill this season and to be upset for the 2nd time this year inside the Dean Dome will be a big task for North Carolina State to pull off. North Carolina has the most talented lineup from top to bottom in the country and they are so difficult to defend because they have so many weapons. The majority of teams around the country are lucky to have more than 3 guys averaging 10 or more points. The Tarheels on the other hand have 6 different players averaging double figures and all of them have the ability to post big numbers on any given night.
Leading the North Carolina team is senior Tyler Hansbrough who is averaging 21 points per game this season. Hansbrough is North Carolina’s all-time scoring leader and still has a chance to become the all-time scoring leader in the ACC if he could finish the year strong. However, that is only one of the players featured in the all-star type lineup. Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington are both averaging 15 points per game and Ellington especially has been really strong recently. Despite North Carolina’s extremely talented team, they still narrowly escaped Miami on Sunday 69-65 and they have been in some really close games with teams like North Carolina State. However, the Tarheels will likely come out with a bit more intensity against their rivals on Wednesday night.
Pick: Take NC State +20
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One Response to “North Carolina State vs North Carolina Basketball Odds & Predictions”
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I can’t see nc state covering. North carolina is just to good and nc state has had a rough year. I see a blowout from the start 94 53 north carolina