There is one team making their first ever appearance at the Big Dance this season, the Lipscomb Bisons. Lipscomb is traditionally overshadowed by its Nashville rival Belmont, but the Bisons won the Atlantic Sun in a barnburner of a game against Florida Gulf Coast to make their maiden voyage.
Unfortunately, they look to be in for a rude awakening. The North Carolina Tar Heels are the defending national champions and will be playing what amounts to a home game in Charlotte.
Yet the Bisons have a glimmer of hope. We have already seen four No. 15 seeds knock off No. 2 seeds this decade, and their A-Sun rival FGCU put itself on the map six years ago by shocking Georgetown. Lipscomb would love to pull off a similar feat.
This war on the floor will go down Friday, March 16, 2018, at 2:45 p.m. ET at Spectrum Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina. The game will be televised live on CBS. We'll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game throughout March Madness.
Opening NCAAB Basketball Betting Odds at BookMaker.eu
North Carolina -19.5
Lipscomb +19.5
Over/Under 161.5
Lipscomb was pretty clearly the second-best team in its conference all season long and put up the performance of a lifetime to knock off FGCU on its home court. The Bisons simply couldn’t miss in the outright win as a 6.5-point underdog per the CBB betting lines. They hit 65 percent of their shots from the floor and were an incredible 87 percent inside the arc.
The Tar Heels were never in danger of missing out on the tournament. It hasn’t been the best year for UNC, but the program lost a lot from that national championship winning team, so a slight downturn wasn’t unexpected. UNC looked sharp at the end of the year though, beating Syracuse, Miami, and Duke in consecutive days before losing to Virginia in the ACC Championship Game.
Key Stat
This is going to be a high scoring game. Lipscomb isn’t going to go away from what got it here in the first place, a very up-tempo style where the team races up and down the court and hopes to hit more threes than you.
According to Ken Pomeroy, Lipscomb plays at the fifth-fastest pace in the country and the only team that plays faster than them in the tournament is Oklahoma. Of course, the Bisons don’t have a player as talented as Trae Young on their roster, but it has worked out well for them this season.
North Carolina isn’t going to shy away from that pace. The Tar Heels like to play up-tempo when they can, and they will relish the opportunity to play that way against Lipscomb. UNC has one of the most efficient offenses in the country and Lipscomb’s defense is going to find it hard to stop them.
Player to Watch
If the Tar Heels are going to make another deep tournament run, it will be on the back of Luke Maye. Maye has been the top player on the team all season long. He is the leading scorer and is averaging a double-double as well.
Maye isn’t just a big body that looks to get easy baskets down low though. He has tremendous range for a big man, and he isn’t afraid to let it fly from deep. He has hit 44 percent of his three-point attempts this season and opponents must guard him on the edge.
Free March Madness ATS Picks
To beat North Carolina, Lipscomb would have to be unconscious from the floor. Unfortunately for them, the team already cashed that chip in with its performance against FGCU. The Tar Heels are a team that has had some defensive lapses this season though, so look for the Bisons to get a backdoor cover late.
NCAAB Basketball Betting Odds: North Carolina 94, Lipscomb 78
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