BEST LINE: Pinnacle +9½ -106

Posted at 12:30 PM EST.

9:00 PM EST. One of our favorite angles is to fade teams that just made it into the Coaches Poll and/or the AP Top-25. That applies to the Hurricanes. Miami wasn’t ranked last week in either poll but victories over Duke, N.C. State and Syracuse in three of its last four games has catapulted them all the way to #23 in both polls. The reason this fade makes sense and has shown a profit for years is because teams that are ranked are almost always overpriced when playing unranked programs. Schools that “just got in” are always hot or on a run and when you combine that with their sudden ranking, you are going to pay a premium to wager on that team. Furthermore, these are kids, not pros and so they get a little too jacked up once they see their school’s name in the polls. What it means is recognition, more exposure and the expectation to perform or live up to its “new found” fame. Give the ‘Canes credit for some outstanding performances but after games against Notre Dame, Duke, Virginia, N.C. State and Syracuse and subsequently getting into the polls, Miami figures to take a giant breather here before upcoming games against FSU and #10 Louisville.

The Yellow Jackets are dead last in the ACC with a record of 0-7 but aside from a brutal shooting performance against the Cavaliers in a 57-28 loss, Tech has been in every other game. They’ve played Notre Dame twice and lost one of those in double OT and the other by three points. The Yellow Jackets also lost to Syracuse by one point, to Pitt by five points and to Boston College by two points. Georgia Tech is one of the top rebounding teams in the conference and while they struggle in many other areas, their bigs are good enough to keep them in games. The Yellow Jackets haven’t been able to finish off teams but they’ve proven on more than once occasion that they can compete with the elite in the conference. Tech is just 9-10 overall this season but almost all of their losses have been single digit defeats and we expect them to be in this one right to the end as well.