JEFF ALLEN GAME PREVIEW: DUKE AT NORTH CAROLINA
One of the classic rivalries in college basketball renews tonight in Chapel Hill as the (19-6, 8-4) Duke Blue Devils face the (21-4, 10-2) North Carolina Tar Heels. Duke has won four straight games since a brief skid that saw the Dukies drop out of the AP Top 25 for the first time in 167 weeks. UNC rebounded from a pair of road losses at Louisville and at Notre Dame with easy wins over B.C. and Pitt in their last two. North Carolina opened as a -6.5 point favorite with the over/under set at 164. Heel and under money has the number now at UNC -7.5 with the total down to 162 1/2 at this writing.
By Duke standards this has been a tough year for Coach K and the Blue Devils. The team was ripped by defections to the NBA after last year’s championship run and the best player remaining, Amile Jeffereson played just nine games before going down indefitely with a foot injury. The hero of last year’s march through the Big Dance, Grayson Allen (20.6, 4.7, 3.7), has picked up some of the slack scoring but in limited as a guard and weak defensively. Brandon Ingram (17.2, 6.8) is the best of the new freshman and has really emerged as an excellent two-way player.
North Carolina is loaded. The Tar Heels are big, athletic, talented and deep. Their two obvious flaws are three-point shooting where they convert on just 31.6% of their shots from behind the arc (#295 nationally) and a ho hum attitude on defense where UNC ranks #8 in the ACC and just #69 nationally. Senior Brice Johnson leads six Tar Heels that average better than 9.6 ppg. with 16.4 ppg and pulling down 10 boards nightly. Justin Jackson (12.9, 3.8, 3.1) is a talented swing man to also watch.
This Tabacco Road Rivalry is a classic. Over the last 95 meeting between the two, Duke leads 45-44 with a point differential of 15 points to Duke. This is the first meeting of the year between the two with the rematch in the season finale for both teams on March 5th at Cameron Indoor. Duke has five of the last six meetings including three of the last four on this floor. There is a lot on the line on this game. For North Carolina, a probably No.1 seed in the NCAA tournament with a series sweep. For Duke,better seeding in the conference tournament and the Big Dance if they take care of their own business.
That all said, this is a very tough call on the side. The Tar Heels are 6-0 at home in ACC play with all sic wins coming by 8+ points. Still not anxious to lay this type of points in a rivalry game vs. a team that may have finally found it’s mojo with it’s back against the wall. not anxious to grab points with Duke either as this just might be the LEAST athletic Duke team in Coach K’s long tenure at Durham. One thing we no for certain is that neither team like to play or is very proficient in playing defense. This total points to a game in the 80’s and that’s the type of game we’re expecting to see tonight.