North Carolina vs Duke 2/5/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Duke Blue Devils and the North Carolina Tar Heels meet Saturday in college basketball action from Dean Smith Center. Duke is currently 18-3 this year. The Blue Devils beat Notre Dame in their last appearance. As for North Carolina, they’re sitting at 16-6 so far. The Tar Heels took out Louisville in OT on Tuesday. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Duke has stayed consistent this year so far; they’re yet to lose consecutive games. The only losses have come to Ohio State, Miami and Florida State. The Blue Devils have taken out Syracuse, Clemson, Louisville and Notre Dame in their last quartet. 

Back on Monday versus the Irish, Duke got off to a 27-14 start by halftime. At game’s end, the Blue Devils were victorious 57-43. Paolo Banchero was the leading scorer on 21 points and nine rebounds. AJ Griffin added 13 points and nine boards as well. 

Over on the North Carolina side, they hit a 12-4 run to start the year. The Tar Heels would then lose consecutive games to Miami and Wake Forest. Since then it’s been smooth sailing with wins over Virginia Tech, Boston College, NC State and Louisville in succession. 

Matched up against Louisville on Tuesday, the Tar Heels went punch-for-punch with the Cardinals the whole way and ended up needing overtime. North Carolina scored 16 points from there in a 90-83 win. Brady Manek topped the team on 24 points, and Armando Bacot doubled with 19 points and 22 boards. 

The Tar Heels are 6-1 ATS in their last seven at home and the over is 4-1 in their last five overall. The over is 3-1-1 in UNC’s last five home games. 

Meanwhile, the Devils are 5-2 ATS in the last seven road games and 5-2 ATS in the last seven overall. Duke is 4-1 ATS in their last five Saturday games. 

PICK: I’m going to take a stab on North Carolina. The Tar Heels are really going to have to get their offense moving to keep the pace in this one, though. The good news is that North Carolina has been on a good scoring run lately. They’ve hit 76 or more points in four of their last five outings. 

That said, Duke has been at 71 points or more in seven of their last eight games and should come out firing here. I like this matchup to be a tense, high-scoring affair with North Carolina ultimately powering out a cover. Should be a really fun game to watch (Duke/UNC games always are), so make sure you tune in to this one.