With the 2015-16 NCAA Basketball season moving on toward March Madness, this Sunday the 14th of February 2016 and Valentine’s Day 2016, we have an interesting Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) match-up between 2 ACC rivals with the 17-6 Pittsburgh Panthers (6-5 ACC) playing the 20-4 No. 9 North Carolina Tar Heels (9-2 and 1st ACC), with the game being played at the Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with the tip-off scheduled for 1 PM ET and seen on ESPN 3.
For those that Bet on College hoops at a sportsbook, the Pittsburgh Panthers have been struggling as of late, and having difficulties with ranked opponents, and have lost 2 straight games against the UVA 64-50 and Miami 65-63. Now on this Valentine’s Day if the Panthers want an upset over NC they need to have one of their best performances of this season.
The fans of the 6-5 ACC Pittsburgh Panthers the season for your team has pretty much gone as expected as they have lost 3 of their last 4 games to ranked teams, and in those 3 games they were outscored by at least 13 points each game.
One could thing for the Panthers that against the Hurricanes this past Tuesday they avoided a blowout 65-63 as their 21st ranking for offensive efficiency kept the game close. True they only rank 64th in points scored each game, but as we mentioned, it’s very effective, while their defense has struggled.
In this Sunday game the Panthers offense can keep this game with the Tar Heels a close won, since NC has lost 2 of their last 3 games with Pittsburgh, who have also struggled recently against ACC opponents in Boston College and Virginia Tech. Since joining the ACC the Panthers have won 2 out of their 1st 3 meetings.
For the fans of the 9-2 ACC North Carolina Tar Heels most recently beat Boston College this past Tuesday 68-65, as J. Jackson came off the bench and scored 21 points leading his team to victory.
To date the Tar Heels are only averaging some 72 points each game of their ultimate 3 games of which all 3 were away games. But on their home court they remain perfect with 12 wins and 0 losses, as they have averaged some 87.4 points each game, which ranks 6th in the NCAA. In their ultimate 5 conference games at home they have been victorious by a margin of 14.7 points in those games.
The North Carolina Tar Heels have great balance and have a lot of depth offensively as 6 players on the team have averaged some 10 points plus each game, and that alone could help them to beat the Panthers on their home court at Chapel Hill.
The online betting prediction for this heated ACC rivalry game will see that North Carolina is to powerful on offense and they beat Pittsburgh 83-75!