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The unranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets have been a pleasant surprise at the start of the ACC season, posting a 3-1 league record and sitting ahead of behemoths Duke, Clemson, Miami and Notre Dame. The Jackets also opened with a better record than the North Carolina Tar Heels, but they’ll have the difficult task of winning in the Dean Dome as they try to put some distance between themselves and the Heels.
This war on the floor will go down Saturday, January 20, 2018, at 2 p.m. ET at the Dean Smith Center. The game will be televised live on ESPN2. We'll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the college basketball Saturday schedule.
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The Heels don’t lose often at home, but the stunning upset loss at the hands of Wofford last month was an eye-opener. UNC had its 23-game home winning streak end, losing outright as a 25.5-point favorite. That loss started a run where the Heels have gone just 5-3 SU and 3-4-1 ATS, but they have won their three home games over that span, including a 30-point thumping of Boston College. This isn’t the UNC team we’ve seen in the past and they are vulnerable.
Tech has been the surprise team in the first weeks of the conference season, but things get a little tougher with a stretch of games that feature the best in the ACC. They travel to Chapel Hill after a matchup with Virginia and have games against Florida State and Clemson immediately following. The Jackets have covered the spread in each of their first four league games while also cashing the under each time.
Last Meeting
Maybe the Heels took the game too lightly, but they opened ACC play last season with a visit to Atlanta and were smothered by the Yellow Jackets, losing 75-63 in a game UNC was favored by 17 points. Few players remain on the Heels roster from that game, but Joel Berry and Kenny Williams likely won’t forget what happened when the clubs meet for the first time since that New Year’s Eve tilt.
Williams and Berry started in the backcourt for UNC and they certainly didn’t help the Heels’ chances of getting a win by shooting a combined 4 of 20 from the field with 12 points. Berry is the team’s second leading scorer this season at 17.4 per game while Williams is third with 12.3. Josh Okogie, who averages a team-best 18.8 points per game for the Jackets, scored 26 points in the upset with Ben Lammers adding 11 points and 11 boards.
Key Stat
UVA sets the bar for defense in the ACC, but the Jackets aren’t far behind. They rank third in the league and 19th in the country in scoring defense, surrendering just under 63 points per outing. Tech held four straight opponents to 60 points or fewer and won them all while playing below the total each time. When the Jackets surrender 60 or fewer they have yet to lose, going 7-0 SU and 6-1 ATS. The under is 5-1 in those games with one contest not having a posted total.
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Georgia Tech has turned it on at the start of ACC play and their only blemish is a loss at Notre Dame. It’s pretty simple what the Jackets have to do to pull off the upset and that’s play stingy defense. Despite having four players average double-figures in scoring, the D has been the key.
But don’t expect the Heels to overlook Tech in this one, especially after what happened in Atlanta at the start of last conference season and what Wofford did a few weeks ago. Berry and Williams will look to atone for that disaster last season and Luke Maye has been a monster averaging a double-double in points and rebounds. Tech is improved and Josh Pastner has done a fabulous job, but winning in the Dean Dome escapes them this time.
College Basketball Odds: North Carolina 77, Georgia Tech 65
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