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Gambling911.com has your Final Four odds and a pick for the Oregon vs. UNC matchup. LIVE IN-PLAY WAGERING is available for this game here.
The Oregon Ducks and the 4.5-point favorite North Carolina Tar Heels, will know who their next opponent will be, by the time their Final Four matchup tips off at 8:49 p.m. ET , on Saturday, April 1st at University of Phoenix Stadium.
The second of the two national semifinal games features 2 household names and programs that have been at or near the top of the futures board throughout the season.
For those that filled out a bracket, Oregon vs. North Carolina wasn’t a big surprise at this point. South Carolina vs. Gonzaga certainly is, so it will be interesting to see the betting handles compared for the 2 games.
With North Carolina favored by a couple of possessions, the total is gradually increasing at 151.5 and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see those 2 trends continue..
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Oregon and North Carolina are both loaded with high-upside talent and a lot of recruits that had a galaxy’s worth of stars next to their names.
Like the previous game, there is an interesting West vs. East angle to this one, but travel situations don’t matter when you get to this point in the NCAA Tournament.
These games are scheduled for East Coast time, so they will both be played early for South Carolina and North Carolina.
Oregon Ducks
Oregon heads to the desert with a 33-5 record straight up. They’ve run through Iona, Rhode Island, Michigan, and Kansas to get to this point. Certainly the Ducks are used to playing in the Grand Canyon State with annual trips to Tucson and Tempe.
The loss of Chris Boucher hasn’t been a factor for Oregon yet, but this is the type of matchup where it could really stand out.
Head coach Dana Altman needs to figure out a way to keep North Carolina off of the offensive glass.
The Ducks have enough scoring threats, but this is going to be a game won down in the tough areas because Oregon is a pretty mediocre rebounding
North Carolina Tar Heels
The North Carolina Tar Heels are 31-7 on the season with wins over Texas Southern, Arkansas, Butler, and Kentucky to get to this point. This is the first time that North Carolina hasn’t faced the highest possible seed in the tournament, but Oregon was downgraded a bit for losing Chris Boucher right before the Tournament.. It is very unfortunate that a championship-caliber game had to be played in the Elite Eight, but North Carolina and Kentucky were seeded in the same region and Kentucky’s gauntlet of a schedule finally caught up with them in a buzzer-beater loss to the Tar Heels. UK got a raw deal to say the least, and North Carolina has had one of the easier routes with Arkansas and Butler prior to getting a fellow blue-blood program in Kentucky.
We’d have the opportunity to fade North Carolina if the game was Tuesday or Wednesday, but with nearly a full week to prep for the Final Four, the dramatic win over Kentucky isn’t going to have a whole lot of carryover.
Picks & Predictions
One thing that could help North Carolina is that the Tar Heels get a lot of second-chance points, and like to get the ball inside the arc.
Just over 30 % of UNC’s attempts were threes, while, 38.6 % of Oregon’s shots were 3-point attempts. In a deep shooting backdrop like this, North Carolina will be getting the higher-percentage looks.
We think that’s the key as North Carolina should have an easier time getting those interior looks.
Kennedy Meeks and Isaiah Hicks don’t have to worry about Chris Boucher. Jordan Bell has really stepped his game up, but he can only cover one guy.
Oregon faced 3 jump-shooting teams before playing Kansas, who does like to drive to the rim, but the Jayhawks were 5-of-25 from deep and that was the end of it for them.
They didn’t have the interior players that North Carolina has. There’s a mismatch in THIS game, that clearly favors the favorite, so we’ll side with the North Carolina Tar Heels -4.5 and expect them to move on to the title game.
