The North Carolina Tar Heels are set to face the Duke Blue Devils. Check out our college basketball odds series, which includes our North Carolina Duke prediction, odds, and pick.
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Here we are: The final home game for Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski is at hand. Coach K came to Duke in 1980, after the Blue Devils made the national championship game in 1978 and carried a strong basketball brand … but nothing like the North Carolina juggernaut under Dean Smith which was an annual factor in college basketball. Duke had a good but not extraordinary basketball history up to that point. The Blue Devils were a Final Four program under coach Vic Bubas in the mid-1960s. They regularly competed for the ACC Tournament championship in that decade. Yet, in the 1970s, other schools in the state of North Carolina — Smith's Tar Heels and the mid-1970s North Carolina State teams under David Thompson — ruled the roost. College basketball odds historians know this.
If you had to make a North Carolina Duke prediction in the 1970s, that prediction would have almost always leaned to the Tar Heels. When Coach K struggled at Duke in his first three seasons in the early 1980s, it seemed that nothing was about to change in the North Carolina Duke odds.
Duke athletic director Tom Butters was patient with Krzyzewski. In an age before social media and 24-7 sports talk radio, the culture surrounding coaches was not the same as it is today. Dean Smith himself was the beneficiary of a patient administration at North Carolina which allowed him to endure a few rough seasons before he finally turned the corner in the late 1960s. It's fitting that Coach K received the same long runway.
Today, how fortunate Duke is that its athletic director didn't pull the plug on the Krzyzewski adventure in 1983.
We know the story: Duke went to the national championship game in 1986. Krzyzewski gathered Jay Bilas, Mark Alarie, Johnny Dawkins, Tommy Amaker, Dave Henderson, and Danny Ferry and turned Duke into a national power. From 1986 through 1994, the Blue Devils made seven Final Fours. Their historic upset of UNLV in the 1991 Final Four led to the first of back-to-back national championships. Christian Laettner ranks alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton as one of the greatest collegiate basketball players of all time. Coach K won three more national titles after his back-to-back stack in 1991 and 1992. His five national titles are second only to John Wooden.
Yes, you have to make a North Carolina Duke pick, but this day is about a man more than about a betting line.
Courtesy of FanDuel, here are the North Carolina-Duke odds:
College Basketball Odds: North Carolina-Duke Odds
North Carolina: +12 (-110)
Duke: -12 (-110)
Over: 153.5 (-110)
Under: 153.5 (-110)
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Why North Carolina Could Cover the Spread
The Tar Heels, very simply, could not have played any worse against Duke a few weeks ago in Chapel Hill. They were torn to shreds. North Carolina will be desperate to play well, with its NCAA Tournament fate up in the air.
Why Duke Could Cover the Spread
The Blue Devils will be shot out of a cannon with intensity and passion, as they try to make sure they beat their archrival on a very emotional night for Coach K.
Final North Carolina-Duke Prediction & Pick
Duke is a lot better than Carolina and will be playing for Coach K. Need we say more?
Final North Carolina-Duke Pick: Duke -12
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