ESPN’s predictor model for Saturday night’s latest showdown between bitter rivals Duke and North Carolina shows exactly where the programs are as they get set for their latest collision at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The game will tip-off at 6:30 p.m. ET on ESPN, and College GameDay will be on hand at Cameron like it has been so many times.
The second-ranked Blue Devils will carry a 14-game winning streak into the matchup, as they come off a victory over NC State on Monday night that was tougher than expected. Duke is 18-2 overall and perfect in the ACC at 10-0, and the Blue Devils boast arguably the country’s best player in freshman Cooper Flagg.
It’s been a different story so far this season for North Carolina, which fell at Pittsburgh, 73-65, on Tuesday night in losing for the 3rd time in 4 games. The Tar Heels’ 1 victory in that span was a struggle against Boston College in which UNC had to go to overtime, in Chapel Hill. Before that came excruciating 1-point losses at Wake Forest and at home against Stanford, so it’s been a struggle for Hubert Davis’s team as it sits at just 13-9 overall and 6-4 in the ACC.
When all of that is added up on both sides of the rivalry, the fact that ESPN’s predictor believes Duke has an 89.6% chance to win its 15th game in a row shouldn’t come as a surprise.
But rivalry games can be funny — just look at Michigan’s upset win at Ohio State in football last fall — so you just never know what can happen.
