{"id":19940,"date":"2011-12-02T19:46:19","date_gmt":"2011-12-03T00:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=19940"},"modified":"2011-12-02T19:46:19","modified_gmt":"2011-12-03T00:46:19","slug":"college-basketball-picks-north-carolina-tar-heels-vs-kentucky-wildcats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/college-basketball-picks-north-carolina-tar-heels-vs-kentucky-wildcats-19940\/","title":{"rendered":"College Basketball Picks: North Carolina Tar Heels vs. Kentucky Wildcats"},"content":{"rendered":"

No. 5 North Carolina Tar Heels at No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats
\nSaturday, 12\/3\/11, 12:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Kentucky -6.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Kentucky -6.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 150.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 151.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Kentucky Wildcats are 63-2 SU all-time as the No. 1 team when playing at home<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

North Carolina is set to play the second of back-to-back games against top-10 opponents when traveling to Rupp Arena.\u00a0 The Tar Heels bounced back nicely after suffering their first loss, picking up a 60-57 win over the Wisconsin Badgers as seven-point home favorites.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m more motivated right now about the UNLV loss than I am about the Kentucky loss last year because this is this year\u2019s team,\u201d commented Tar Heels coach Roy Williams.\u00a0 The team will be seeking revenge from getting bounced out of the NCAA Tournament by Kentucky last year.\u00a0 North Carolina is 5-2 ATS on the road.<\/p>\n

The Tar Heels feel behind early in last year\u2019s 76-69 loss to the Wildcats in the final of the East Regional, but senior forward Tyler Zeller will key part of the game plan, scoring 21 points and grabbing nine rebounds in the contest.\u00a0 He finished with 12 points and seven rebounds last time out against the Wisconsin Badgers.\u00a0 Harrison Barnes also figures to play a big role in this contest, scoring in double figures in 21 consecutive games.<\/p>\n

Kentucky moved its home-winning streak to 38 games in walking away with an 81-59 victory over the St. John\u2019s Red Storm on Thursday night.\u00a0 The Wildcats allowed the Red Storm to connect on just 19 of 60 shots from the field.\u00a0 It\u2019s safe to say that the entire roster is ready for this marquee matchup on Saturday.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s at Rupp, so it\u2019s not like we\u2019re going to North Carolina last year with the crowd against us,\u201d commented Wildcats forward Terrence Jones.\u00a0 He led all scorers with 26 points and also grabbed nine rebounds in the last outing.\u00a0 Kentucky is 36-17-1 ATS following a spread loss.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats defense has been superb all season, holding opponents to less than 38 percent from the field in seven consecutive games.\u00a0 Freshman forward Anthony Davis has played a major role in defending the rim, averaging 4.9 blocks per game, as he\u2019s on pace to shatter the single-season school record in that category.\u00a0 Kentucky usually wins when landing in Saturday\u2019s situation, posting a 63-2 record at home as the No. 1 team in the country.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Tar Heels due to their 13-2-1 ATS mark versus SEC opponents, while the Wildcats are 2-8-1 ATS when facing off versus ACC teams.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the college basketball handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No. 5 North Carolina Tar Heels at No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats Saturday, 12\/3\/11, 12:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Kentucky -6.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Kentucky -6.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 150.5 Current Total:\u00a0 151.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker North Carolina is set to play the second of back-to-back games against top-10 opponents when traveling to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":19787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[387,5659,876,32,4116,739,3897,545],"class_list":["post-19940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-acc","tag-anthony-davis","tag-kentucky-wildcats","tag-north-carolina-tar-heels","tag-rupp-arena","tag-sec","tag-terrence-jones","tag-tyler-zeller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19940"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19941,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19940\/revisions\/19941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}