College Hoops Picks ATS, Feb. 11: North Carolina Tar Heels @ Duke Blue Devils

North Carolina Tar Heels (7-2, 21-2) at Duke Blue Devils (7-2, 20-3)

Wednesday, Feb. 11—9:00 PM EST

---

Preview

Every sport has famous rivalries that both casual and fanatic fans know and follow. Baseball has the Red Sox and Yankees. Tennis has Federer and Nadal. There's the Red River Rivalry in college football. Professional basketball has the Lakers and Celtics. And college hoops has UNC and Duke.

Year in, year out, this rivalry provides a fantastic game (or two) with never a dull moment.

The 2008-09 season is not shaping up to be any different. This year's battle features two teams currently in the top five and who both have been the top-ranked team at one point this season.

Oh, and they're tied for first in the ACC.

The last two weeks have not been kind to the Blue Devils (7-2, 20-3). They lost twice on the road to Wake Forest and Clemson and were taken to overtime by Miami (they also defeated Virginia by 25 in-between their two losses).

North Carolina (7-2, 20-3) struggled early in conference play, losing their first two ACC games, but have since gone on a seven-game win streak. The Tar Heels are the highest-scoring ACC team and the second-highest scoring team in the nation at 92.3 points per game. This allows them to have six players averaging double-digit points—a stat most coaches can only dream about.

This is the first of two matchups between coach Williams's and K's squads this season—the second is March 8 at UNC and is the final game of the regular season for both teams.

By The Numbers

	Record	Conf	ATS	RPI	SOS	PF	PA
UNC	21-2	7-2	7-11-1	6	38	92.3	71.2
Duke	20-3	7-2	10-9	2	6	78.2	61.0

	FG%	D. FG%	3P%	D. 3P%	FT%	RPG	SPG	APG	TPG
UNC	48.8	40.0	38.8	33.2	74.9	46.2	8.9	19.7	13.4
Duke	44.9	40.0	33.6	31.0	72.4	42.7	9.0	14.1	13.5

Stat Leaders

	UNC	Duke
PPG	T. Hansbrough - 22.1	K. Singler - 15.8
	T. Lawson - 15.3	G. Henderson - 15.2
	W. Ellington - 15.0	J. Scheyer - 13.0
RPG	T. Hansbrough - 7.8	K. Singler - 8.2
APG	T. Lawson - 6.6	J. Scheyer - 2.9
SPG	T. Lawson - 2.2	K. Singler - 1.7
BPG	E. Davis - 1.9	B. Zoubek - 1.0

---

Prediction

Current Line: UNC -2.0

North Carolina ATS: 7-11-1, 7-11-1 when favored.
Duke ATS: 10-9, 2-0 when underdog.

Since 1980, the Tar Heels have the slight advantage over the Blue Devils, 35-32 overall. In their last 10 matchups, though, they have split the series 5-5.

This is the smallest margin for the Tar Heels this season, while the Blue Devils have been the underdog a couple of times.

Want to see Ryan's final pick? Please head over to CBBPlace.com!

See thousands of free College Basketball Picks Against the Spread this season

*All statistics for this article have come from StatSheet.com*