March Madness is underway and there will be plenty of basketball games every day. Here, you will be able to find previews and betting predictions on daily basis. All you need to know about the teams, stats, and analysis that will help you to place your winning bet.
Our NCAA Score Predictions for Today:
Here are our picks for the games playing tonight – 04/04/2022:
Kansas [-4.5] vs. North Carolina
That day has finally arrived. The Kansas Jayhawks and the North Carolina Tar Heels will go against each other in the National Championship game, the last chapter of this year’s NCAA tournament.
Even though not many brackets had these two teams going all the way to the final, both Jayhawks and the Tar Heels had excellent performances during the tournaments and whoever wins the championships will be well deserved.
A little bit of history
For Kansas, this will be an opportunity to win their fourth NCAA championship after they won in 1952, 1988 and most recently in 2008.
The Tar Heels have won a total of six championships so far and coach Hubert Davis will have a chance to add another one in his first year as a head coach.
Both teams have a long history but they have faced each other only 11 times. North Carolina leads the series 6-5 with a note that the Jayhawks have won the last three games including the last one back in 2013. When it comes to the NCAA tournament games, Kansas leads the series 4-2.
How Kansas got to the National Championship game?
Kansas is coming off an impressive performance in an 81-65 win over Villanova in the semifinals. The Jayhawks scored first in the game and the lead by the very end of the game. Kansas shot a fantastic 53.7% from the field and 54.2% from the three-point territory grabbing 6 more rebounds and dishing out 6 more assists than the Wildcats. David McCormack led the team with 25 points on 10-of-12 shooting while Ochai Agbaji added 21 on 6-of-7 from deep.
The Jayhawks had a pretty smooth road to the Final Four defeating their opponents on average by 16.3 points. In the Elite 8, Kansas blew out the Miami Hurricanes by 76-50.
Previously, they defeated Providence in the Sweet 16, Creighton in the second and Texas Southern in the first round of the tournament.
In the regular season, the Jayhawks finished on top of the Big 12 conference with a 33-6 record, winning the conference title with a 74-65 win over Texas Tech.
How North Carolina got to the National Championship game?
The Tar Heels came into the semifinal game against Duke as a four-point underdog but managed to defeat the Blue Devils for the second time in the road and wished Mike Krzyzewski a happy retirement with an 81-77 win. North Carolina had impressive 50 rebounds in the game and made 10 three-pointers. Caleb Love led the team with 28 points and Armando Bacot had 20+ rebounds in back-to-back games finishing with 11 points and 21 boards.
Previously, North Carolina defeated Saint Peter’s in the Elite 8, UCLA in the Sweet 16, the defending champions Baylor in the second round and Marquette in the tournament opener.
The Tar Heels finished the regular season with a 29-9 record which put them second in the ACC.
Kansas vs North Carolina Game Preview
Date: Monday, April 4
Game Time: 9:20 pm ET
Venue: Caesars Superdome, New Orleans, LA
How To Watch: TBS
Kansas vs North Carolina Game Odds
Moneyline: Kansas -4.5 (-105); North Carolina +4.5 (-115)
Spread: Kansas -189; North Carolina +155
Over/Under: 152.5 (-110)
Kansas vs North Carolina Key Stats
Points per game: Kansas 78.6; North Carolina 78.6;
Allowed points per game: Kansas 68.6; North Carolina 72.6;
Rebounds per game: Kansas 35.1; North Carolina 36.9;
Allowed rebounds per game: Kansas 29.9; North Carolina 29.3;
Field goal percentage: Kansas 48%; North Carolina 45.8%;
Three-point percentage: Kansas 36.1%; North Carolina 37.4;
Free throw percentage: Kansas 71.5%; North Carolina 77%;
Kansas vs North Carolina Picks
The Kansas Jayhawks are entering the championship games as a 4.5-point favorite. They have a more experienced team than the Tar Heels and their offense at times seems pretty unstoppable. No team at the tournament so far has challenged them which makes them very confident entering the final game. If there is a weak spot for the Jayhawks that is their bench since most of the scoring is done by the starters. North Carolina is the best rebounding team in the league and that is their chance to stay close into the game and have a shot at winning in the end. The Tar Heels have a perfect record in the season when they score at least 10 three-pointers and they will need to do that again in order to have a chance to win. The Tar Heels somehow found ways to win every game in the tournament so far but that will come to an end in the championship game as the Kansas toughness and their versatility on the offensive end will make the difference in this one.
Pick: Kansas -4.5 @ -110 with DraftKings
All the Picks for March Madness
Types Of Bets To Place On NCAA Basketball
Money Line
Money Line betting is the most common choice any bettor makes no matter if he is a newbie or considered an expert. The same applies to NCAA basketball which, at the end of the day, is what the famous bracket is based on. With betting on money line you are simply choosing which team will win the game no matter the point differential. NCAA Money Line odds are listing the favorite in a given game as a negative odd (for example -250) which means you will have to bet that exact amount to win another $100. Money line odds list the underdog as a positive number (for example +500) which means you will win that amount on a $100 bet.
Against the spread
The point spread, which in Europe is usually known as “handicap”, is the number of points taken from the favorite in the game, or given to the underdog, aiming to give both teams the same chances of winning the bet. Most of the time, there is a team that is favorite to win based on their roster, current form, injury report, head-to-head matchup, or on a number of statistical factors. Sometimes there is so much difference in the quality of the teams that betting only on money line makes no sense. That’s why the point spread is designed and here is how it works:
Duke Blue Devils vs. North Carolina Tar Heels
Duke -5.5
North Carolina 5.5
In this example, there is a favorite to win which is Duke and an underdog which is North Carolina. Duke as the favorite, has a negative (–) value in front of the point spread of 5.5. Unlike them, North Carolina as an underdog has a positive point spread of +5.5. The 5.5 point spread represents how many points either team could win, or lose by. If you believe Duke will win by 6 or more points, then you would bet on the favorite in this case, meaning that Duke will have to win by 6 or more points in order to cover the spread and for you to win your bet. The other way around, if you place a bet on North Carolina then you have them covered by 5 points. That means that your bet will be a winning one whether North Carolina wins the game or they lose but by not more than 5 points.
Total Points (Over/Under)
Betting on NCAA basketball game totals, which is also known as Over/Under, what matters is whether the total sum of the combined points scored by both teams will go Over or Under the set total margin. Let’s explain this through an example as well:
Duke Blue Devils vs. North Carolina Tar Heels
Over/Under: 160.5
In the example, the Duke and North Carolina total is set at 160.5. Placing a bet on the Over here would mean you expect the game total to go over 161 points, while if you took the Under, you would expect 160 points or less in the game.
For example, if you placed a bet on Over, you would win the bet if the final score is 81-80 (a total of 161 points), and you would lose if the final score is 81-79 (a total of 160 points).
Remember, it is irrelevant which team wins the game all that matters is the sum of the points scored in the game by both teams.
FAQs on how to bet on NCAA basketball
This mainly depends on the sportsbook website. These three are the most famous and most of the best are placed either on the money line, point spread and total points.
Besides these options, you can find betting on player props. This means that you will be able to bet on players’ points, rebounds, assists, steals, the number of made threes based on the same rules as the Over/under betting. The only difference is that in this bet there can be a push since the specific player may even not get any playing time.
Pretty similar is betting on team props but what you will be able to find is only on team’s points.
A fun choice with great odds is to bet on whether the game will go into overtime or not. The odds on this one looks pretty tempting but before you choose to try your luck, you should know that the games that go into overtime are less than 10%.
When you are making a decision on what to place your bet on you need to take into consideration numerous of facts. Of course that you will check the team record, their rankings and their place in the standings but there is much more than that.
In the NCAA tournament, there is no home court advantage unless a team is lucky enough the game to be scheduled to play in their city which rarely happens. Still, what can make a difference is the distance of their school since if playing in their own state can be considered a home court advantage to a certain point.
You also need to check the injury report. Just like in any other team sport, if a star player is injured that will most definitely have an impact on the team’s performance.
The head-head section can also tell you a lot especially the most recent game between the two teams. Here, you don’t check only who won, but also where the game was played, the winning margin, the total points and if you want to go deeper, you even check the shooting percentage of both teams.
At the end, you also need to check the recent trends and see how a team has performed for example in the last 5 games as a favorite or in the last 5 games playing after one day rest.