The North Carolina Tar Heels will be looking to overcome recent adversity as they begin the defence of their national championship on Friday with a first-round date with the Lipscomb Bisons as 19.5-point favourites on the March Madness odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
North Carolina is coming off a 71-63 loss to Virginia as a 3.5-point underdog in last weekend’s ACC Tournament final, and is 3-3 straight up in six outings ahead of Friday afternoon’s Bisons versus Tar Heels matchup at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte.
Despite their recent loss to the Cavaliers, the Tar Heels enter the tournament as the No. 2 seed on the West Regional bracket, and maintain strong +1400 odds to win the 2018 NCAA Tournament.
However, UNC will first have to get past a surging Bisons squad if it is to stay on course to reach the national championship game for a third straight season. Lipscomb makes its March Madness debut riding an eight-game SU win streak, and put a scare into UNC in their only previous meeting, an 80-66 loss in Chapel Hill back in November 2010.
Elsewhere in first-round action, runners-up at last year’s NCAA Tournament, the Gonzaga Bulldogs ride an impressive 14-game SU win streak into Thursday afternoon’s date with the UNC Greensboro Spartans as 12.5-point favourites.
The No. 4 seed in the West Region, and a +1500 wager on the national championship odds, the Bulldogs were crowned as West Coast Conference regular season and tournament champions for a sixth straight time this season, but proved to be a betting disappointment down the stretch, going 5-11 ATS in their past 16 outings.
Gonzaga has claimed the win in nine straight opening-round contests, but is just 2-3 ATS in their past five, and winless ATS in their past five as double-digit betting favourites, according to the OddsShark College Basketball Database.
Over in the Midwest Region, the Duke Blue Devils look to overcome early tournament exits in each of their two March Madness appearances since their last national championship win in 2015 as they take on the Iona Gaels on Thursday as 19.5-point favourites.
The second-seeded Blue Devils opened the campaign as +400 favourites on the college basketball futures, but have struggled at times in the second half of the season, going 8-5 SU down the stretch. Duke has also been bounced in the first round in two of its past five appearances, and is just 5-8 ATS in its past 13 opening-round contests.
The 2016 national champion Villanova Wildcats open the tournament atop the March Madness futures, perched at +600, just ahead of top-seeded Virginia at +650, while the Blue Devils trail at +800.
For more odds information, betting picks and a breakdown of this week’s top sports betting news check out the OddsShark podcast with Jon Campbell and Andrew Avery. Subscribe on iTunes or listen to it at OddsShark.libsyn.com
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