The marquee matchup around college basketball on Tuesday is likely from the Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte as formerly ranked but so far disappointing North Carolina takes on No. 7 Florida, with the unbeaten Gators as short favorites on the NCAAB odds.
North Carolina vs. Florida NCAA Basketball Lines in Week 7.
| Opening Spread/Totals Subject to Change: Florida -3.5 (total 166.5) Expert Prediction: Florida 78, UNC 76 |
How to Bet North Carolina vs. Florida NCAA Basketball Lines
College Basketball Vegas Lines: North Carolina +144 vs Florida -179
When: Tuesday, 7 PM ET
Where: Spectrum Center, Charlotte
TV: ESPN
Stream: ESPN+
Why Bet on North Carolina?
North Carolina was a preseason Top 10 team, but is only 6-4. The Heels did play one of their best games of the season on Saturday, though, in routing La Salle 93-67. It was 42-25 at the half, and UNC was never much threatened. The Heels shot 58% in the second half and 54% overall, despite unimpressive 3-point shooting (10 for 31) and poor free-throw shooting (11 for 23).
Cade Tyson
Tyson led the way with his best game as a Tar Heel to date, finishing with a season-high 23 points on 9 of 14 shooting. He scored nine first-half points, hitting his first 3-pointers in seven games in the early going. He hit back-to-back threes in a span of 37 seconds in the second half, and finished 5 of 10 from behind the arc. Tyson had 24 points in the first nine games.
Cade delivered yesterday 📈 pic.twitter.com/CziICVca4m
— Carolina Basketball (@UNC_Basketball) December 15, 2024
Hubert Davis
“He’s shown up to work every day,” UNC head coach Davis said of Tyson. “His preparation is fantastic, and he showed up today and played extremely well. It’s not about his shot, he’s a basketball player. He can rebound, he can handle the ball, he can pass and he can defend. Being able to stretch the floor and shoot from three is one of the many things that he can do, but his ability to shoot at multiple positions is a huge benefit for us, and it was nice to see his shots go in.”
RJ Davis
Davis started by missing his first four shots before rallying to finish with 13 points and five assists. Ven-Allen Lubin posted 10 points and five boards, and Seth Trimble added 10 points, eight rebounds and four assists. The Tar Heels dominated points in the paint, 50-20, and the rebounding totals, 47-36. UNC posted its third game of the year with 50 percent shooting in both halves.
The Bench
UNC’s bench scored 49 points versus 44 points from the starters, marking the first time its reserves outscored the starting lineup in four seasons. Carolina hit seven second-half three-pointers after hitting just 3 of 13 in the first 20 minutes. UNC scored 90 or more points for the fifth time this season and leads the ACC in scoring. Carolina improved to 25-2 all-time when scoring at least 90 points under Davis. UNC La Salle to 35.6% from the field, the fourth time this season the Heels have held the opponent below 40%. They are 4-0 in those.
“I didn’t think we handled that speed as well as we could have,” said Explorers head coach Fran Dunphy when asked about Carolina’s preferred pace and backcourt quickness. “We made some decisions with the ball that were way too quick. Then in the second half, my man Tyson was tremendous. It was tremendous for him, but not so good for us.”
Against La Salle
Carolina held La Salle to 35.6% from the field, the fourth time this season UNC held the opponent below 40%. UNC is 4-0 when the opponents shoot under 40%. UNC is 4-1 when Davis hits multiple threes. He has 293 career 3FGs, seven shy of passing Marcus Paige for the most ever by a Tar Heel. Davis and freshman Ian Jackson are the only Tar Heels who have made at least one three-pointer in every game this season. Davis is the only UNC player to score in double digits in every game.
North Carolina has faced a top-10 non-conference schedule already, according to KenPom, and its four losses have come to teams in KenPom’s top 20. Davis leads North Carolina with 17.6 points per game and averages more than five free throw attempts per game, where he converts at an .865 clip. The Tar Heels also get double-figure scoring from Trimble (15.4 ppg), Elliot Cadeau (11.5) and Jackson (10.8). Lubin averaged 20.0 points and 9.0 rebounds in two games against Florida last season while with Vanderbilt.
^Why Bet on Florida?
No. 7 Florida (10-0) stayed unbeaten with an 83-66 win over Arizona State on Saturday in Atlanta. The Gators set the tone early as they hit four of their 10 total 3-pointers as part of a 12-0 run, to take an 18-8 lead with 14:29 to play in the first half. UF shot 48% from the field (32 of 67) compared to Arizona State’s 37% (23 of 62) shooting performance.
Game Review
The Gators out rebounded the Sun Devils 47-27. Florida has opened with a 10-0 record for the third time in school history, following the 1951-1952 team, coached by John Mauer, and Billy Donovan’s 2005-2006 squad. Donovan’s team started 17-0 and won the program’s first NCAA title.
Walter Clayton Jr.
Senior guard Clayton Jr. scored 25 points, including five 3-pointers, to lead the way. Clayton, the team’s leading scorer coming in at 18.4 points per game, finished eight of 18 from the floor, including 5-for-12 from the arc to join Anthony Roberson (2005) as the only UF players in the 37-year history of the 3-point line to make at least five in three straights games. No Florida player has hit five 3s in four straight games.
Will Richard
Senior guard Richard, playing about 30 minutes from his hometown of Fairburn, Ga., added 16 points, while fifth-year guard Alijah Martin, the transfer from Florida Atlantic, stuffed his stat line with the first double-double as a Gator, finishing with 15 points, 11 rebounds and six assists. UF shot 47.8 for the game, but it was the first 14 minutes of the second half — when the Gators went on a 12-for-20 tear at one point to open a 29-point lead at 79-50 — that things got out of hand. When it was over, the Gators had their 10th double-digit margin of victory in as many games this season.
Todd Golden
“We have really good players. They’ve bought into each other, they play hard for each other and there’s no selfishness on this team right now. I think that’s a huge, huge key for our success to this point, but also moving forward,” Gators coach Golden said. “We talk about it a lot and it’s a lot easier when you have three seniors who lead you in that [direction] and have a great understanding that they can all have success at the same time. If they don’t [one night], it could be their night the next night. We’ve had that all year. Will scores 25 one game, Alijah scores 30, maybe Walt scores 30 … the unselfishness is contagious.”
a double double for amart ⛓️ pic.twitter.com/wAPRKqVI7r
— Florida Gators Men’s Basketball (@GatorsMBK) December 15, 2024
Defensively, the Gators limited the Sun Devils to 37.1 percent for the game, just seven of 25 from deep (28.0 percent) and dominated the glass 47-27, with center Rueben Chinyelu and forward Alex Condon clearing eight boards a piece.
The Streak
Florida’s 10 straight wins to start the season match the second-best start in program history (17-0, 2005-06; 10-0, 1951-52). This year’s squad is the first to win all 10 of those games by double digits, with the closest final to date coming in a 13-point win at Florida State. The 10-game winning streak is Florida’s 11th all-time double-digit winning streak and the team’s longest since a program-record 30-game winning streak in the 2013-14 season.
UF has hit 10 or more 3-pointers in six of its last seven games, knocking down 11.1 3s per game over that span. Clayton Jr. has made a 3-pointer in 33 straight games, matching the fourth-longest such streak in UF history. His current run is the longest since Michael Frazier II’s record 41-game streak in 2014 and 2015.
Jumpman Invitational
UF has split its two Jumpman Invitational games all-time, falling 62-53 vs. Oklahoma in 2022 and then doubling its point total for a 106-101 double overtime win vs. Michigan in 2023. Prior to the Jumpman Invitational, UF had not played in Charlotte since the team’s first Final Four appearance in 1994.
^North Carolina vs. Florida Last Meeting
The Gators and Tar Heels will play for just the seventh time — only the third time in the last 60 years — and for the first time since a meeting in the 2014 Battle 4 Atlantis that UNC won handily by a score of 75-64. UF has two wins in the series, coming in the 2000 Final Four in Indianapolis and in a 1964 home game.
^Holiday season 🟰 Prime hoops season 🔥@TheAndyKatz gives his top 10 games of the week 🙌 pic.twitter.com/E5RR4jRIsz
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) December 16, 2024
| Place your Bets anywhere, anytime by downloading the MyBookie APP NCAA Basketball Specials: John Wooden Award |
College Basketball Betting Center
NCAAB Odds and Lines
| NCAAB Betting |
| March Madness Odds |
| NIT | CIT | CBI |
| National Championship Championship |
NCAAB Must-Know
| John R. Wooden Award |
Latest NCAAB Betting Predictions:
- North Carolina vs. Florida NCAA Basketball Lines & Score Prediction – 2025 Jumpman Invitational
- How to Choose College Basketball Picks: Key Factors to Consider
- Indiana at Nebraska Game Lines, Prediction & 2024 NCAAB Expert Analysis in Week 6
- NFL Week 15 Betting Preview plus Your Chiefs vs Browns Pick!
- College Basketball Power Rankings Heading Into the Weekend
