NCAA Basketball: Kentucky Wildcats at North Carolina Tar Heels Handicapping Predictions

Kentucky Wildcats at North Carolina Tar Heels
Saturday, 12/4/10, 12:30 PM EDT, TV: CBS
Opening Point Spread: North Carolina -1
Current Betting Line: North Carolina +1
Opening Total: 146
Current Total: 147.5

The Kentucky Wildcats have moved to a road favorite in today's contest against North Carolina at the Smith Center

Kentucky enters this matchup of two of the winningest teams in college basketball by winning five of its first six games. The Wildcats recently posted a 91-57 win over Boston University and were led by a pair of double-doubles from Terrence Jones and Josh Harrellson. The team also blocked a season-high 10 shots in the game, while also outscoring the Terriers 30-14 in the paint and out-rebounding them 41-31. Head coach John Calipari’s team is young and it will undergo more growing paints like it suffered in a 84-67 loss to Connecticut in the title game of the EA Sports Maui Invitational. “In the first five minutes against Connecticut, we looked like we haven’t been coached,” he stated. The team is 2-2 ATS on the season and make sure to get the most up-to-date college basketball lines today.

The Wildcats are 123-61 all-time against schools making up the Atlantic Coast Conference, but trail the all-time seres against the Tar Heels (11-21). Kentucky ranks 337 out of 346 nationally in terms of Division I experience and start an interesting stretch of games starting today. The program begins the journey against North Carolina this afternoon, move on to face the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and finish against the Indiana Hoosiers. Calipari brings confidence to his young team by toting a 47-6 record on the road dating back to the 2005-06 season.

North Carolina returns home and loos to bounce back from Tuesday’s loss at Illinois in hosting the Wildcats at the Smith Center. The Wildcats lead all NCAA Division I schools with 2,028 all-time wins in its 108th season, while the Tar Heels rank third with 2,008 victories in its 101st season. North Carolina had won five straight meetings in the series before the Wildcats took a 68-66 win at Rupp Arena last season. In that game, the Wildcats ran off a 28-2 spurt to take a huge first-half lead. Eight of the 10 starters in last season’s game have moved on to professional basketball. The squad is 31-44 ATS over the last three years.

Tar Heels head coach Roy Williams has a career record of 6-5 against Kentucky, including a 5-2 mark as the man in Chapel Hill. He is dealing with a roster that does not include a scholarship senior and is the first Tar Heel club without one since 2003-04. The team may have done some growing up in a 74-69 victory over the College of Charleston, which was its second straight victory since returning to the mainland. “I thought our team in the second half came together more as a team with more emotion,” Williams stated.