Iowa State vs North Carolina 11/25/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The North Carolina Tar Heels and the Iowa State Cyclones meet Friday in college basketball action from Veterans Memorial Coliseum. North Carolina is currently 5-0 on the year. The Tar Heels beat Portland in their Thursday matchup. As for Iowa State, they took on Villanova in a close game Thursday. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

North Carolina is on a nice run so far this year, but they’ve had a couple of relatively close calls so far. The Tar Heels kicked off the season with wins over UNC Wilmington, Charleston, Gardner-Webb and James Madison in the first quartet. 

On Thursday versus Portland, the Tar Heels had a slim 40-38 edge going into halftime. North Carolina posted a 49-43 edge in the second for an 89-81 victory. Pete Nance topped the team with 28 points and Caleb Love had 23 points with four assists. 

Over on the Iowa State side, they got off to a blowout start this year, taking out IUPUI 88-39 and NC A&T 80-43 in their first two games. The Cyclones kept it going with a 68-53 win over Milwaukee on Sunday. 

In the Thursday game versus Villanova, the Cyclones scored 34 points in the first half and 33 more in the second to force overtime. Iowa State ended up prevailing 81-79. Gabe Kalscheur led the team on 23 points, and Osun Osunniyi had 17 points with five boards. 

PICK: I’m probably going to stay with North Carolina. The Tar Heels don’t have much to complain about so far this year; the team is playing well. UNC shot a nice 53.4 percent from the floor with 50 percent (11-of-22) from 3-point range in the win over Portland. The Tar Heels out-rebounded the Pilots 39-23 and had 17 team assists along the way. 

As for Iowa State, they powered out a gutsy win over Villanova in overtime Thursday. The Cyclones shot 45.5 percent from the field, collecting 37 rebounds and 22 team assists along the way. This is going to be another tough one for Iowa State, though.