NC State +6 at North Carolina 2 units (5pm ET)
NC State has a win over Miami, a 24 point win vs Duke and gave Kansas a 6 point game early in the season and talent wise there’s really no gap between Carolina and NC State this year. NC State on defense pressures a good amount and North Carolina’s had a few games where they’ve settled for threes and outside of RJ Davis nobody is hitting them consistently. Caleb Love’s efficiency hasn’t been good – 11 for 47 from three since the Michigan game on December 21st and 23% from three during this stretch but still taking almost 7 threes per game. NC St holds teams to 30% from three and Carolina’s coming off a game where 29 of their 61 shots vs BC were from three. Carolina only beat BC by 8 at home even with BC going 0 for 6 from three and Carolina also had a 9:13 assist:turnover ratio at Virginia when they lost 65-58. NC State’s guards are really good, Terquavion Smith’s averaging 22 ppg the last 5 games and NC State’s on a good 4 game win streak right now. Carolina will be tough in Chapel Hill but this is a big game vs a quad 1 for NC State with 3 of their next 4 games against Notre Dame, Georgia Tech and Florida State and they have the talent to play a close game vs Carolina.
