The fairytale tournament continues for Saint Peter’s, the first 15th seed in the history of March Madness to reach the Elite Eight stage. Their next obstacle is North Carolina, so here’s a preview of this exciting game and a few betting predictions and picks.
The most interesting story at the 2022 NCAA Tournament so far has certainly been the story of Saint Peter’s, a small team that became the first in the long history of the tournament to reach the Elite Eight phase as a 15th seed. Of course, this tournament also had many other upsets, as is evident from the fact that Saint Peter’s opponent in this stage is the eighth-seed North Carolina.
So, the North Carolina vs Saint Peter’s duel should be very interesting and the winner will secure a spot in the Final Four in New Orleans. One step remains for each team and the pressure will be high, but both teams have shown that they know how to handle the pressure so far.
In any case, here’s a quick look at some key stats for betting on March Madness Elite Eight duel between North Carolina and Saint Peter’s:
- North Carolina is 19-17 ATS this season
- Saint Peter’s is 24-10 ATS this season
- North Carolina is 21-15 over/under this season
- Saint Peter’s is 13-21 over/under this season
We will talk about this game and our predictions in more detail later, so keep reading if you need some help.
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North Carolina vs Saint Peter’s Game Info
East Region – Elite Eight: No.8 North Carolina (27-9) vs No.15 Saint Peter’s (22-11)
Tipoff Time: 5:05 p.m. ET, Sunday, March 27
TV: CBS
Location: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA.
North Carolina vs Saint Peter’s Odds Analysis
March Madness odds can be very different from the first time they’re announced, but the odds and lines on this game have stayed the same since they first they came out. For example, North Carolina was the 8.5 favorite and that is still the same right now.
Meanwhile, the line on total points is 137.5 and that is also the same as it was a couple of days ago when we first found out the pairs for this stage. The fact that both total points and the line on North Carolina stayed the same until now means that we did not see any major betting trends either way.
North Carolina vs Saint Peter’s Predictions
It’s time for us to share our betting tips and predictions for North Carolina vs Saint Peter’s. The odds and lines you see in this article are FanDuel, one of the most popular bookies in the country that has some interesting March Madness offers. Anyway, these are our picks:
Saint Peter’s to Win on Spread (+7.5) @ -110
Our desire to see Saint Peter’s story continue and for the Peacocks to go all the way is just one of the reasons why we expect them to come under the spread in the upcoming duel against North Carolina. In fact, it is the least important reason of the few, but it still affected our prediction a bit.
More importantly, the ATS record by both teams this season tells us all that we need to know about this game and what we can expect to happen – North Carolina is 19-17 ATS this season, Saint Peter’s 24-10. Furthermore, the Peacocks are 10-0 ATS in their last ten games, which is quite impressive. Lastly, the Tar Heels are 6-8 ATS this season when they were favorites by eight or more points.
That being said, the Tar Heels are the better team on paper and they are the more experienced team when it comes to the NCAA Tournament since this is only the fourth such appearance for Saint Peter’s. In any case, we are not expecting Saint Peter’s to win this game – they just need to stick with it and come under the spread, which is pretty reasonable considering their performances so far.
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Over 137.5 Total Points
North Carolina has been a true offensive juggernaut in this tournament since the team averaged 87 PPG so far (83 if we don’t count the points in overtime against Baylor), so it’s safe to assume that we will see another high-scoring result from them despite the fact that Saint Peter’s held their opponents to 65 points per game until now.
The biggest advantage for North Carolina will be rebounding, especially offensive rebounds which the Tar Heels are known for thanks to their star center Armando Bacot. After all, Saint Peter’s allowed 11 offensive rebounds per game in this tournament and that’s something that we can expect in this match as well.
And while Saint Peter’s will give their best to slow the game down and play it at their pace, which doesn’t bode well for total points, they have also been very good at avoiding turnovers and that should help them stay close to North Carolina despite their inability to match their offensive output on face value.
Another thing to consider are free throws. We can expect Saint Peter’s to resort to fouling to keep North Carolina’s offense in check, plus we can see plenty of points scored for the free throw line down the stretch if the game is as close as we expect it to be.