College Basketball Betting – Pittsburgh at NC State

Pittsburgh Panthers at NC State Wolfpack (-3.5)

The No. 10 seed Pittsburgh Panthers (19-13, 8-10 ACC) and the No. 7 seed NC State Wolfpack (19-12, 10-8 ACC) will meet tonight in the second round of the ACC tournament (7:00 p.m. Eastern at Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina).

These two teams already met once this season; back on January 3rd, the Wolfpack cruised to a 68-50 home win with Trevor Lacey scoring 19 points and Ralston Turner adding 16.

The Wolfpack would go on to have an up-and-down regular season, picking up big wins on the road against the Louisville Cardinals and UNC Tar Heels, but dropping curious home games to Clemson, Boston College, and Wake Forest.

The good news for the team is that they come into the tourney on something of a roll, winning five of the last six. They should also have something of home-court advantage, with tonight’s game in Greensborough.

Pittsburgh, meanwhile, finished the season 8-10 inside the ACC, averaging just 67.3 points per game.  Like NC State, Pittsburgh struggled with its consistency this year. At times, they looked like ACC contenders – like in their 76-72 win over Notre Dame; but more recently, they haven’t been able to buy a win, dropping three straight to Wake Forest, Miami, and Florida State to close the year.

“We’re a better team than what we played this last week,” Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon said. “But these are the results. You are who you are. We’re going to have to do something about that on Wednesday.”

NC State is currently a 3.5-point favorite for tonight’s game; they have covered two of the last three matchups against Pittsburgh, are playing much better basketball of late, and will have the crowd on their side. The Wolfpack minus the points looks like the better play.

(Photo credit: Thomson20192 (Pitt and GT players) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)