North Carolina Tar Heels vs. Kentucky Wildcats prediction, preview (9:30pm ET)
This will be the first true road trip of the season for the Tar Heels, who have only played games away from home in Florida during Feast Week. It’ll also be the third true test of the young season for UNC, which defeated Kansas at home behind a second half rally, but lost handily last week on a neutral floor to Michigan State.
Michigan State is the more proven team compared to Kentucky, and actually got a dominant head-to-head win over the Wildcats in the Champions Classic. However, I like the advantage the deeper Wildcats should have at home here. Outside of the neutral loss to Sparty, Kentucky also lost a true road game at Louisville, but otherwise has dominated lower level competition.
The Wildcats are desperate to get a quality win, and this is going to be by far their best chance of the season — MSU and Louisville were both better competition and away from home. The Tar Heels will have to face a rowdy road atmosphere for the first time this season, and the lineup has been running thin with Seth Trimble out due to an arm injury.
Caleb Wilson has lived up to all the hype as a freshman, and is a true stud. But the Heels just don’t have much behind him, particularly when it comes to guard play with Trimble sidelined. But Kentucky, even with Jaland Lowe still out and Mo Dioubate now joining him, can run much deeper at all positions.
Between Kentucky’s depth, experience, shooting and simply being hungry to get a big win, I think we see the Wildcats come out the much more aggressive team in this one. Fueled by the home crowd at Rupp and UNC being in this environment for the first time this season, I think we see Kentucky go wire-to-wire in a much needed victory. Betting “halftime/fulltime” on DraftKings Sportsbook bypasses laying the 6.5 with Kentucky, and means we need the Wildcats to lead at the break and go on to win the game. I feel that’s the best wager in this one.
