No team has started the season better than the North Carolina Tar Heels. North Carolina returned most of last year’s team that made it to the NCAA Tournament Final this season and the squad looks hungry to avenge last year’s defeat. They will play one of the last games in this year’s ACC/Big Ten Challenge against the team they sent crashing out of the tournament in the Sweet 16, the Indiana Hoosiers.
At 9 p.m. ET, tune into ESPN for live television coverage of this NCAA basketball game on Wednesday, November 30, 2016, at Assembly Hall.
College Basketball Odds at BookMaker.eu
The Tar Heels have performed admirably both SU and ATS this season. UNC is 7-0 SU and 5-1-1 ATS with easy covers over opponents like Wisconsin and Oklahoma State. Four of their six games with a total have finished under the number.
The Hoosiers started the season off right with a huge overtime win over Kansas, but haven’t played anyone of note since. Indiana is 1-2 ATS, but one of the two losses was as a 13-point underdog to Indiana Purdue-Fort Wayne.
Last Year’s Meeting
These teams met last season with a berth to the Elite Eight on the line and played one of the highest scoring games of the tournament. North Carolina hit 11 of 20 three-point attempts and shot over 50 percent from the floor in putting up over 100 points on Indiana’s defense. As for Indiana, the Hoosiers weren’t shooting bad themselves, hitting 41 percent of their three-pointers, but couldn’t keep pace with the Tar Heels in the paint.
The other thing that stood out about last year’s game was how many whistles there were. A combined 49 fouls were called by the officiating crew in this one with North Carolina going to the charity stripe 33 times and Indiana shooting 26 free throws. Both teams knocked down a solid percentage of their attempts, but Indiana’s free-throw shooting has been worse this year than it was last year and is worth taking into account.
Matchup to Watch
The battle in the blocks should be extremely interesting to watch. Both of these teams are in the Top-10 in rebounding through the early part of the season with North Carolina pulling down 47 RPG and Indiana grabbing 48 RPG. However, while the Tar Heels have been more of a team rebounding squad, the Hoosiers clearly have a set of guys that are always down low ready to grab a board.
The Hoosiers have four players averaging over 6 RPG this season, but Thomas Bryant is the key to this group. Bryant is averaging over 8 RPG for the squad and the 6’10 sophomore has shown he can tangle with the Tar Heels before.
UNC is using Kennedy Meeks in the role of Brice Johnson as the go-to guy down low this season and he has responded well with the increased action. He has reached double-digits in points in his last six games and has grabbed at least 7 rebounds in each game so far. Meeks was a terror against Wisconsin last week in the Maui Invitational Final, hauling in 16 rebounds and dominating the Badgers in the paint.
Aside from Meeks, North Carolina has five other players averaging from 4 to 6 RPG, with Tony Bradley being the primary rebounder when Meeks isn’t on the floor.
Free College Basketball ATS Picks
North Carolina looks poised to make another deep tournament run with a talented group of upperclassmen leading the way. Although the team lost Johnson and Marcus Paige from last year’s team, there is a lot of talent in Chapel Hill and few teams have the depth to match up with them.
Indiana isn’t one of those teams that can match up with this group and while the Hoosiers have Bryant and James Blackmon Jr., that won’t be enough.
College Basketball Odds: North Carolina 84, Indiana 72
BookMaker.eu offers play-by-play betting odds for live sporting events every day! The user-friendly wagering interface on your smartphone provides an easy way to place bets on the go. Mobile betting lines are updated by the minute, so click here to start gambling on thrilling live action at BookMaker.eu!
