Off a disappointing loss in the semis of the ACC tournament to the hated Duke Blue Devils, the South Region top seeded North Carolina Tar Heels will look to vent some frustration upon the No. 16 seed Texas Southern Tigers from the lesser SWAC. The Heels have failed to cover each of their last three first round games in the Big Dance, but the betting public looks to be backing them to end that streak in what should amount to being a layup for the more powerful reps out of the ACC.
At 4 p.m. ET, tune into TNT for live television coverage of this NCAA basketball game on Friday, March 17, 2017, at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, SC. We'll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every NCAA tournament game on Friday’s college basketball schedule.
College Basketball Odds at BookMaker.eu
Texas Southern +26.5
North Carolina -26.5
Over/Under 154.5
The Heels opened up as decided 24.5 point favorites for this matchup with the game total set at 153. With the Heels involved, it’s no surprise to see the total already jumping up to 154.5 even though the action taken is a 50/50 split. Nearly 60 percent of the tickets written are laying the hefty chalk against Mike Davis’ three-time reigning Southwestern Athletic Conference champs.
It’s been a minute since the Heels were installed chalk of this magnitude. You have to go all the way back to last season, and before that, to December of 2013. That said, Roy Williams kids have performed admirably in this role having gone 4-0 straight up and 3-1 against the last four times. Texas Southern covered as 23.5 point underdogs in falling 93-72 to Arizona back in the 2015 tourney.
Key Stat
12.1 – With Kennedy Meeks averaging 9.1 rebounds per game and Isaiah Hicks adding nearly 6.0 per game, it comes as no surprise to see the Heels leading the country in rebounding margin. That bodes terribly for a Texas Southern team not adept at shooting for high clips from the field ( 43.2% ), and most importantly, from beyond the arc ( 29.7% ). With the Tigers owning a -1.0 rebounding margin, there won’t be many second chance opportunities to put points on the board making it all the more tough to hang with what will surely be a determined UNC side.
Player to Watch
Justin Jackson – If North Carolina is to make a serious march to the title in this tournament, it’s going to need its best scorer to shake off the rust and get back to playing the type of ball that saw him burst onto the scene at the outset of the season. He’s the team’s leading scorer at 18.1 points per game, but has only gone for 16, 12, 15 and 7 points in the team’s last four games. The lanes are going to be wide open for him to streak to the basket for easy deuces over the entirety of this game. He should lead the Heels in scoring by a country mile, and if he doesn’t, UNC’s chances of returning to the title game and winning it all decrease. He has to be at his best for a deep run, and Texas Southern is exactly the team his confidence could get a boost from.
Free College Basketball ATS Pick
Texas Southern has dominated the SWAC for a number of years. Unfortunately for them, they won’t be running up against a team like Alcorn State in this matchup. Instead, it’s the No. 1 seed in the South Region and they’re going to get their clocks cleaned. While the Tigers did play a number of top tier opponents over the course of the regular season, they got destroyed in each and every one of them.
Games against Arizona, Louisville, Cincinnati, TCU and Baylor saw them go 0-5 straight up and 0-2 against the spread in the two lined games. They lost those games by an average of 32.8 points. Look for UNC to hit the ground running in the first half and never look back en route to cruising into the second round of the dance.
College Basketball Odds: North Carolina 97, Texas Southern 63
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