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Final 4 Preview: Duke vs North Carolina Betting Picks, Odds, & Predictions April 2nd

TeamOdds
Duke Moneyline-208
North Carolina Moneyline+181
Duke Spread-4.5
North Carolina Spread+4.5
Duke/North Carolina Total151
Game Date & TimeSat Apr 2nd, 2022 at 8:49PM ET
Odds via OddsJam Perfect Line

For the last Final 4 game of the evening, we have Duke vs UNC for a trip to the finals. This game is being played at 8:49PM ET at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.

There are so many storylines involved with this game it makes my head hurt. I could write an entire article solely on storylines leading up to this game, but I will try to sum it up below.

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Starting with the most obvious: Duke and UNC are playing in the NCAA tournament for the first time ever, and of course it is in the Final 4, and even more of course it happens in Coach K’s last year coaching college basketball.

Not to mention, this is UNC’s first year without legendary coach Roy Williams, who decided against doing a farewell tour and instead quietly retired from the game. Taking his spot was Hubert Davis, who has the 8 seeded North Carolina in the Final 4 in his first year.

And lastly, Coach K can get his revenge on UNC for ruining his last game ever coaching at Cameron Indoor. For those of you who forgot, UNC beat Duke in coach K’s final home game, also on Dukes senior night. Did that about cover all the major ones? I hope so!

Looking at the actual game itself, it is no surprise that Duke is the favorite here, and by a decent amount too. The point spread is Duke -4.5, with the total sitting a a pretty high number of 151.

In terms of pure talent on the floor, Duke is in a league of their own. They are headlined by Paolo Banchero, a 5-star recruit that will probably be a top 5 pick in the upcoming NBA draft. Against a good Arkansas defense, Duke had 4 players score in the double digits. The scary part is that Banchero was Dukes 3rd leading scorer with 16 points.

Wendell Moore Jr is a great player, and sophomore guard Jeremy Roach has really stepped up his game in the tournament. He is lightning quick and impossible to keep up with on offense, and he is a dog defensively as well.

In the Sweet 16 Duke played the #1 defense in all of college basketball in Texas Tech and lit them up for over 50 points in the 2nd half. In the next round, they played another elite defensive team in Arkansas and scored almost 80 points.

Their offense is a machine, but the really scary part is they have taken a step up defensively as well. They flummoxed Texas Tech with a zone to end the game, and in the Elite 8 they held Arkansas to 41.9% shooting from the field.

The game against Arkansas was never really in doubt, but it was nothing compared to what UNC did to poor St Peters in their Elite 8 matchup. UNC went up 7-0 to start the game, and that was that. St Peters didn’t put their first point on the board until over 4 minutes had passed.

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UNC was able to do what Purdue and Kentucky couldn’t – they rattled St Peters. Despite being an 8 seed, this UNC team has legit talent. They have one of the more balanced offenses that can have up to four players beat you on a given night, depending on who has the hot hand.

The regular season leading scorer was Armando Bacot, but the impressive part about UNC’s run is that they have had multiple players go off. Brady Manek put up 26 points in limited minutes against Baylor before being ejected, and then R.J. Davis took over and scored 30 in that game.

Against UCLA both Manek and Davis were cold, so it fell on the shoulders of Caleb Love. Love bailed UNC out with a remarkable amount of clutch shots, and ended the game with 30 points. They didn’t really need anybody specific to go off against St Peters because it was such a blowout from the start, but UNC can beat you in a lot of different ways.

Don’t let the matchup against a 15 seed in the Elite 8 fool you, either. UNC has made a really impressive run to get themselves in the Final 4.

In round 1 they beat the snot out of Marquette, in round two took down the 1 seed and defending champs in Baylor in OT, and in the Sweet 16 took out a really good and last years Final 4 participant UCLA.

They might have gotten an easier matchup in the Elite 8 specifically, but UNCs run in the tournament should not be diminished. Unfortunately for UNC, though, is that I think their run ends here. I am riding with Duke moneyline in this game.

Duke just has too much talent, and their level of play has really taken off in the past two games.

So, I love getting Duke moneyline on DraftKings. -195 is steep, but the guess here is that Duke is going to be so heavily bet as the week goes on that their moneyline will end up well into the -200s before tip-off.

Duke vs North Carolina Pick:

My Final 4 betting pick is to take Duke moneyline. I bet this on DraftKings Sportsbook at -195 odds.

Duke vs North Carolina Prediction:

My prediction for this game is that Duke wins 83-80.

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