Syracuse vs. North Carolina Pick – Basketball Predictions & Odds 1/24/23

The North Carolina Tar Heels and the Syracuse Orange meet in college basketball action from the JMA Wireless Dome on Tuesday night. Let’s dive into the odds, injuries, matchup history and make a prediction for this game.

Odds

North Carolina is listed as a 4.5-point road favorite with a ML price of -200. The total for this game is set at 150.5 points.

Injuries

For North Carolina, Puff Johnson is questionable for this game with a knee injury while Will Shaver is out indefinitely with a foot injury. For Syracuse, Peter Carey is out for the season with a knee injury.

Matchup History

These two teams have traded wins back and forth in each of the last five meetings between these two teams after an 88-79 OT win for North Carolina back on February 28^th, 2022.

Trends

North Carolina is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games against a team with a winning percentage above .600 and 1-6-1 ATS in their last 8 road games against a team with a winning home record while the under is 4-0 in their last 4 games overall. Syracuse is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games overall and 8-3 ATS in their last 11 home games against a team with a losing road record while the over is 11-1 in their last 12 games overall.

Pick

I’m backing Syracuse here. I get why North Carolina’s favored as the Orange haven’t been a world-beater, but they’ve been a lot more consistent covering the number than North Carolina has been, as UNC’s only beaten Louisville in their last three true conference road games. Syracuse matches up well and schematically can make things difficult for the Tar Heels and all in all, I expect this one to come down to the wire so give me Syracuse and the points here.