North Carolina vs Florida State Prediction Basketball Picks 3-14-24

The Florida State Seminoles and the North Carolina Tar Heels meet Thursday in ACC Tournament college basketball action from Capital One Arena. Let’s get into our Florida State vs North Carolina prediction. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Florida State Seminoles

The Seminoles have had a pretty wild year. Florida State kicked things off on a 12-7 run, then lost five of the next six games. Over the last seven the Seminoles are 4-3 with losses to Clemson, Georgia Tech and Pittsburgh mixed with wins over Boston College, NC State, Miami and Virginia Tech.

In the Wednesday tournament matchup versus Virginia Tech, Florida State went into the break with a one-point deficit. The Seminoles hit a 50-39 run the rest of the way for an 86-76 victory. Jamir Watkins was the leading team scorer, doubling up on 34 points, 11 rebounds and four steals.

North Carolina Tar Heels

Over on the Tar Heels’ side, they only lost three of their first 20 games this year. North Carolina hit a rough 2-3 patch after that however, falling to Georgia Tech, Clemson and Syracuse. Since then it’s been wins over Virginia Tech, Virginia, Miami, NC State, Notre Dame and Duke in the last six.

Back on Saturday versus Duke, the Tar Heels jumped out to a 40-31 halftime edge. North Carolina closed on a 48-44 run and took the big victory 84-79 on the road. Leading team scorer Cormac Ryan posted 31 points with two rebounds in 34 minutes of action.

ANDREW’S FREE FLORIDA STATE VS NORTH CAROLINA PREDICTION

I’ll just stay with North Carolina here. The Tar Heels are coming off a very nice game versus Duke in their last outing (outside of the 13 turnovers, that is). In that matchup North Carolina hit 50 percent from the field, 46.7 percent from 3-point range and 83.3 percent (15-of-18) from the line in an all-around great offensive performance. The 39-28 rebounding edge was impressive as well. UNC is cooking right now; they’ve hit 75 or more points in four straight games.

In the last meeting between these teams on January 27, the Tar Heels took a 75-68 road victory. North Carolina wasn’t perfect in that one: the 41.4 percent shooting and 17 turnovers for 26 Seminoles points didn’t help matters. The Tar Heels came back from a slow start and closed strong though, which is what I expect them to do in this tournament rematch.