Best Bets For North Carolina Vs. Duke ACC Semifinal + Cooper Flagg Injury Update

Odds have a 6.5-point spread set in favor of Duke over North Carolina.
Cooper Flagg sustained an ankle injury in the ACC quarterfinals.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Round 3 between the Duke Blue Devils and North Carolina Tar Heels is set to take place in the ACC Tournament semifinal where Duke is a slight favorite to win over their in-state rivals.

North Carolina Vs. Duke

Moneyline: North Carolina (+270) vs. Duke (-340)
Spread: Duke -7.5
Total: 155

Although Duke is favored on legal sports betting sites, this could be a great opportunity to take the Tar Heels on the points and maybe even a sprinkle on the moneyline with the injury to Cooper Flagg.

North Carolina By The Numbers

Put simply, North Carolina has been on absolute fire since mid-February bolstering their tournament resume in every way possible.

They’ve won eight of their last nine games with their only loss coming to Duke where they were only able to score 69 points which is their second-lowest total during that stretch. Outside of their loss though, they’ve scored 80+ in six of those games and 88+ in five of them.

On the betting side through those nine games, they’ve covered the spread seven times, and four of those covers were by a 10+ point margin as well.

With all said and done, when a team has this much momentum while their opponent is missing their arguably the best player in the country, bettors should be all over the Tar Heels line on college basketball betting sites.

Cooper Flagg Injury Update

Flagg suffered a sprained ankle in Duke’s 78-70 win over Georgia Tech in the ACC quarterfinals with under three minutes remaining in the game after coming down awkwardly on a rebound.

Cooper Flagg exited the game and was helped to the locker room after appearing to injure his left ankle in the first half against Georgia Tech. pic.twitter.com/EiUslVt0ZM

— ESPN (@espn) March 13, 2025

The injury looked worse than it was at first glance as Flagg had to be helped to a wheelchair to get X-rays which came back negative but did show a sprain. Flagg was walking on his own after the X-rays.

Flagg currently leads the team in every single stat category so filling the void without him is nearly impossible which would certainly allow North Carolina to capitalize on if he’s ruled out.

That said though, as selection Sunday looms and the NCAA Tournament under a week away, Duke could look to give their star freshmen as much rest needed to be fully healthy.

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Sam Profeta

Samuel has been writing professionally for 4 years. He comes from a sports writing background where he enjoys writing mostly about basketball and football both professional and collegiate. He is a recent graduate of Florida State University where he majored in Editing, Writing and Media with a minor in Communications. During his free time, you can find him watching or playing sports as well as playing videogames and listening to music.