College Basketball Betting Trends: Duke vs. North Carolina

College Basketball Betting Trends: Duke vs. North Carolina

In arguably the best rivalry in college basketball– and possibly all of sports — #10 Duke (19-4, 6-2 ACC) will travel down Tobacco Road to do battle with #5 North Carolina (20-3, 7-1 ACC). While the Tar Heels have won five straight since suffering an embarrassing loss at Florida State, the Blue Devils are coming off a 78-74 overtime loss to Miami (FL) on Sunday.

Both of these historic programs feature elite talent including multiple future NBA draft picks. Duke places four players in double figures (with Andre Dawkins just missing the cut at 9.7 ppg), but they are lead by the inside-out duo of Austin Rivers and Mason Plumlee. The son of Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers, Austin is a dynamic combo guard who leads the team in scoring at 14.5. Plumlee, whose brother Miles is his primary back-up, has improved by leaps and bounds this season. The 6’10” forward is setting career highs with 11.6 points and 9.7 rebounds while shooting nearly 60% from the floor.

As usual, the Tar Heels are stacked with NBA talent and may have as many as five first-round picks on their roster. They are lead by sophomore forward Harrison Barnes who could be a top 3 pick in this June’s draft. Rounding out their frontcourt are Tyler Zeller (15.3 points and 9.6 rebounds) and John Henson (14.3 points, 10 rebounds and a league-high 3.2 blocks) — both of whom are viewed as potential lottery picks.

The health of a few key players could be a crucial factor in this game. UNC has already lost guard Dexter Strickland for the season to an ACL injury, and will be dealing with an injury to Harrison Barnes. The forward is currently listed as probable for tonight’s game with an ankle injury. His status could change before tip-off though, so be sure to take a look at Sports Insights’ College Basketball Injury page for the latest, breaking news.

North Carolina opened as a 7-point favorite at the market-setting CRIS sportsbook and, according to Sports Insights’ College Basketball Betting Trends, is currently receiving 60% of spread bets.  Despite the public pounding the home Tar Heels, the line has dropped a full point to -6 across most of the sports betting marketplace.  This reverse-line movement indicates that early, sharp money is on the Blue Devils.

So far none of our betting systems have been triggered on the spread in this game; however All-Pro members are able to view all of our College Basketball Betting System Plays by logging-in to their SportsInsights.com account.

The following table shows the breakdown of spread betting percentages from our six contributing sportsbooks: