Today’s NCAA Tournament East Regional Final between one-seed North Carolina and two-seed Georgetown should play out like an old fashioned bare knuckle fistfight. It could get physical in the paint between Tar Heels center, 6’9” Tyler Hansbrough and Hoya’s big man 7’2” Roy Hibbert. Hansbrough is even shedding his protective face mask for this game.
Oddsmakers expect the game to be a close one too, installing the Tar Heels a -4.0-point favorite with a 138 ½ total at most offshore sportsbooks. For the Hoyas, this is the first game of the tournament where they find themselves the underdog. Against Belmont in the first round the Hoyas covered ATS a big double-digit line -16. In the second round the Hoyas played old BIG EAST foe and now ACC member Boston College and won SU 62-55 but fell short of the -8.0 cover. Against Vanderbilt in the East Regional semi-final game the Hoyas won by a single digit SU 66-65, failing to cash for backers on the -7 ½ point line. The UNDER should be a total betting favorite with the Hoyas preferring a more deliberate half-court style offense. Expect Georgetown to slow the game to a crawl if they can. The UNDER has cashed in eight of the last 10 games the Hoyas played.
North Carolina is 2-1 ATS in its first three tournament games . Against Eastern Kentucky the Tar Heels fell short of a huge -27 ½ point line. The Tar Heels covered the -9 ½-point line ATS in round two against Michigan State and were fortunate to cover -8.0 ATS in the regional quarterfinal against Southern California on Friday. In the last 10 games the Tar Heels played the total went OVER six times.
Coach John Thompson’s Hoyas will should present matchup problems for the younger Tar Heels featuring Hibbert, junior forward Jeff Green, Junior point guard Jonathan Wallace, freshman forward DaJuan Summers.
Point-Spreads.com pick: Georgetown +4.0
