Louisville Cardinals vs. North Carolina Tar Heels: Most Bettors on Louisville

The Louisville Cardinals vs. North Carolina Tar Heels is an interesting one in that gamblers believe Louisville can at least cover the +5 1/2 line.  Bookmaker.com had this game the most bet on and the Cardinals getting more action on the point spread.

Louisville coach Rick Pitino laughed Friday when he was told that North Carolina coach Roy Williams said he doesn't believe the Tar Heels have a big advantage in today's regional final merely because they're playing about two hours from campus.

"Tell Roy to get on a plane for the first time and let's play the game in Freedom Hall if he feels that way," said Pitino, alluding to North Carolina getting to play four straight NCAA tournament games in North Carolina.

"I won't disagree with him. Let's go to Freedom Hall. Go to Lexington, for that matter. We did it last year. Let's go to Lexington and play it in Rupp. No, I don't think there's a home-court advantage. I think those are mostly mannequins dressed in powder blue."

The Louisville Cardinals had respectable 10 to 1 odds of winning the NCAA Men's College Basketball Tournament coming into the Big Dance.  Those odds had since been shortened.

Terrence Williams and the Cardinals entered the Tournament with a 24-8 record and some sore feelings about losing to Pittsburgh for the third consecutive year in the Big East tournament. Louisville's Rick Pitino is the only men's coach to bring three different schools to the Final Four.  They were the number three seed.

North Carolina had been the early favorite to win the Tournament outright.

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Dan Shapiro, Gambling911.com

Originally published March 29, 2008 10:00 am EST