Less than one hour after coming off of a monstrous win against Kentucky, oddsmakers are showing UNC some early love.
BookMaker.eu has opened North Carolina as a four-point favorite against Oregon for their Final Four matchup next Saturday:
“Like the first Final Four matchup, this is a scenario where we’re anticipating one-sided square action on the ‘public’ team. We’ll be begging for Oregon money from that sector of gaming community. The sharps haven’t been overly in love with the Ducks throughout the tournament, and it’s unlikely they’ll get behind them here at this number, which could climb.”
Currently, UNC is 20-17 for the year against the spread, and Oregon is sitting at 20-16-1. According to ESPN’s Basketball Power Index, UNC is also favored in the game by 57%. What will be interesting is that in Oregon’s last game, Kansas was favored by -6.5 before losing to Oregon by 14 points. Can Oregon once again overcome the odds in a game against a team with redemption on their mind, back in their 2nd Final Four in a row? We will have to wait and see.
According to Bravada (www.Bovada.lv, Twitter: @BovadaLV), UNC is currently favored to not only win the Oregon game, but is also favored out of the remaining teams to cut down the nets in Phoenix:
2017 NCAA Championship - Odds to Win
North Carolina 7/5
Gonzaga 9/5
Oregon 11/2
South Carolina 15/2
Exact Finals Matchup
Gonzaga vs. North Carolina 11/10
Gonzaga vs. Oregon 13/5
South Carolina vs. North Carolina 15/4
South Carolina vs. Oregon 15/2
Exact Finals Outcome
North Carolina beats Gonzaga 12/5
Gonzaga beats North Carolina 13/4
Gonzaga beats Oregon 9/2
North Carolina beats South Carolina 5/1
Oregon beats Gonzaga 6/1
Oregon beats South Carolina 10/1
South Carolina beats North Carolina 12/1
South Carolina beats Oregon 14/1
The Final Four lines
South Carolina +6½
Gonzaga -6½
Oregon +4½
North Carolina -4½
North Carolina is currently coming off one of their biggest wins of the year, with Luke Maye nailing the game-winning shot with 0.3 seconds remaining on the clock. This is the second game in the tournament that UNC clawed their way back from a deficit late in the second half to win the game. This will not be an easy game for Oregon, yet at the same time Carolina will have to continue performing at the level that they are playing at in order to have any chance to get back to the National Championship game for the second year in a row.
Going back to ESPN, they also tweeted the chances of each of the Final Four teams winning the National Championship:
BPI - Chance to win Championship
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) March 27, 2017
Gonzaga 55%
North Carolina 26%
Oregon 17%
South Carolina 2%
Gonzaga is highly favored in the BPI to win it all, and was also favored by Kenpom before the tournament started to win the National Championship as well. They will face a very tough task, as they go up against a South Carolina team that is on fire in this tournament. While ESPN has them favored 88.2% in their match-up predictor, SC have been dismantling teams with a very impressive defensive performance in all of their games while Sindarius Thornwell continues to dominate, averaging 20+ points per game for the tournament.
So what do you think? Do you agree with Vegas on North Carolina’s chances to cut down the nets? Feel free to let us know in the comments below.