Louisville at North Carolina Lines, Pick & TV Info

The game of the night Wednesday in college basketball is clearly this ACC showdown between No. 7 Louisville and No. 8 North Carolina. The Heels led the Cardinals and Duke by a game for the ACC regular- season title. Carolina still has to play Duke to close the regular season. UNC will be favored in the college basketball lines.

Louisville at North Carolina Lines, Betting Pick & TV Info

When: Wednesday, Feb. 22, 9 PM ET Where: Dean E. Smith Center, Chapel Hill, N.C. TV: ESPN Opening NCAAB Lines: UNC favored by TBA

Why Bet On Louisville?

A win over UNC would pull Louisville (22-5, 10-4) into a tie for first place in the ACC and give the Cards a key tiebreaker in the chase for an ACC regular-season title and the top seed in the conference tournament. A win over UNC would also put Louisville in position to chase a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. If Louisville tops UNC, which it almost did two years ago at the Dean Smith Center, the Cards would have four RPI top-25 wins and improve to 4-4 in that key category. The Cards are usually one of the best defensive teams in the country but allowed 90 points in a four- point win over Virginia Tech on Saturday. Donovan Mitchell led Louisville with 26 points. He connected on his first six shots, including three 3-pointers en route to going 8 for 13 from the field and 5 of 7 from the beyond the arc. Louisville shot 51.5 percent from the field and even better, 12 of 22, from beyond the 3-point arc. The Cardinals needed that as Virginia Tech managed to shoot 59.2 percent from the field, including 65.4 percent (17 of 26) from beyond the arc. The Hokies, who set a KFC Yum! Center visitor’s record with their 90 points, also made the most 3-pointers against the Cardinals since they beat West Virginia in the 2005 Elite Eight. Before the wild Virginia Tech game, in which the teams made a combined 29 3-pointers, Louisville was second in the country in defensive efficiency. The Cards are now fifth. Louisville still ranks ninth in the nation in 3-point field-goal defense and 13th in overall field-goal D. The 2016-17 Cards are the best shot-blocking and defensive rebounding team Rick Pitino has had over the past six seasons, and they are also tops in the ACC in time of defensive possessions, with opponents averaging 19 seconds per offensive trip. With Saturday’s victory, Louisville collected the program’s 1,800th win over its 103 seasons. UofL is 10th in the nation with a 1,800-897 record. Louisville has a 56-17 record (.767) in February over the last nine years (since 2007-08), winning 22 of its last 29 in the month. The Cardinals won their 136th-consecutive game when scoring 85 or more points in a game, with Pitino improving to 116-0 in his UofL coaching career when totaling that many points in a game.

Why Bet On North Carolina?

The Tar Heels (22-5, 11-3) crushed No. 14 Virginia 65-41 on Saturday. Justin Jackson scored 20 points help UNC held the ice-cold Cavaliers to the lowest point total scored by an opponent in the Roy Williams era. It was Jackson’s 14th 20-point game this year. Kennedy Meeks had all of his 13 points and seven rebounds after halftime for the Tar Heels, who shot 47 percent and led by double figures nearly all night. Virginia shot just 28 percent and missed its first 17 3-pointers before finishing 2 for 20 from behind the arc. Virginia scored 41 points, the second-fewest by an opponent in the Smith Center (460th game). Clemson scored 39 on 2/16/1995. The 41 points are the fewest allowed by the Tar Heels in Williams’ 14 seasons as head coach. Previous was 42 by NC Central (11/11/2009) and by Northern Iowa (12/21/2016). The 41 points are the fewest UNC has given up to Virginia since 1/21/1947 when UNC beat the Cavaliers 63-38. That game was played in Woollen Gym. Carolina out-rebounded the Cavaliers, 44-26 (plus 18). The Tar Heels came into the game first in the nation in rebound margin at 13.2 per game. The ACC-leading Tar Heels leads the nation in rebound margin (+13.4) and is third nationally in assists (18.3 apg), sixth in scoring (86.9 ppg) and fifth in scoring margin (+15.9). North Carolina is fourth in the nation in adjusted offensive efficiency by Ken Pomeroy. North Carolina is No. 5 in the RPI, No. 4 in the Sagarin Ratings and No. 6 by Ken Pomeroy. Louisville has beaten the five teams that North Carolina has lost to this season, while North Carolina has beaten four of the five that Louisville has fallen to (all but Baylor, which UNC did not play). Louisville trails 5-11 in its series against North Carolina, but has won two of the last three including a 71-65 victory last season in the KFC Yum! Center. Pitino has a 2-7 record against North Carolina (2-4 at Louisville, 0-3 at Kentucky). The Tar Heels beat Pitino’s Kentucky squad 74-61 in the 1995 Southeast Regional Championship game in Birmingham, Ala. to advance to the Final Four.

Louisville at North Carolina Betting Pick: North Carolina Tar Heels

Go Carolina at home to cover the NCAAB spread.