There’s no doubt that the North Carolina Tar Heels and the Kentucky Wildcats are two of the best teams in the country. These teams are ranked 6 and 7 in both the Coaches and AP poll and have played great basketball through the early season slate. Both enter this game with just one loss and a win for either side would be its biggest victory thus far. Will North Carolina’s veterans carry the day? Or will it be Kentucky’s young freshmen?
At 5:45 p.m. ET, tune into CBS for live television coverage of this NCAA basketball game on Saturday, December 17, 2016, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. We will have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the college basketball Saturday schedule.
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Kentucky is sitting at 9-1 on the season and has been the favorite in each of its games thus far. The Wildcats are 7-3 ATS with the lone loss coming at home to a UCLA team that is torching opponents. Seven of Kentucky’s 10 games have gone over the total this season as the Wildcats are averaging 94.4 PPG.
North Carolina is 10-1 this year with its only defeat coming against an Indiana team that has defeated some of the best teams in the nation. The Tar Heels haven’t been that impressive against the number overall, but did cover all three of their neutral site games in the Maui Invitational. Under has been a strong play in UNC games this year with a 7-2 record.
Matchup to Watch
There’s no denying that Kentucky’s young guns are talented, but they are still feeling out the college game. Malik Monk was the jewel of the freshmen class and he has been electric at times. Monk leads Kentucky with 19.4 PPG and is hitting 47.7 percent of his field goals and 38.5 percent of his three-point attempts. He needs to develop the other parts of his game still, but is one of the best pure scorers in the land.
Meanwhile, the Tar Heels are led by a quartet of upperclassmen that almost won the title last year and are hungry to go out on top this season. Isaiah Hicks and Kennedy Meeks are in their senior seasons and have been fantastic in the frontcourt. Hicks is hitting 61.8 percent of his shots from the floor, while Meeks is averaging 12.5 PPG and 9.3 RPG and has been great in the middle.
The matchup between Kentucky’s young, raw talent and North Carolina’s seasoned squad will be a great one.
Coaching Angle
Roy Williams’ Tar Heels are 4-2 all-time against John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats. The battle between these two coaches isn’t particularly heated, but does represent a larger shift in philosophies.
Williams is the elder stateman for the old school that believes in taking talented players and developing them throughout their college careers. He doesn’t recruit too many players that will leave as underclassmen and instead has built teams that become juggernauts due to their chemistry together.
Calipari is the king of the one-and done and even has Coach K following suit at this point. Calipari focuses on the top recruits in the country each season, believing that talent is the most important part of a team and each year starts fresh with a new cast of freshmen. He only has won title to show for his efforts, but his teams are perennial contenders.
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It always takes time for Calipari’s kids to develop and so it wasn’t a big surprise to see them drop the game to UCLA. If this matchup was later in the season, Kentucky would probably be favored to win, but as it stands UNC is the better team. The line should be short either way, but expect the Tar Heels to grit it out in the end.
College Basketball Odds: North Carolina 79, Kentucky 73
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