National Championship 2016 Odds: North Carolina Favored Over Villanova
The North Carolina Tar Heels will be gunning for their fourth consecutive victory over Villanova in the NCAA Tournament when they take on the Wildcats in Monday’s national championship game as 2.5-point betting favorites at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
The Tar Heels return to the national championship game for the first time since last claiming the crown in 2009, punching their ticket with a decisive 83-66 victory over an underdog Syracuse squad in the Final Four.
North Carolina has tallied five consecutive straight-up wins by double digits, building on the 10-game winning streak they ride into Monday night’s Wildcats versus Tar Heels betting matchup at NRG Stadium in Houston.
Pegged as the No. 1 seed in the East Region after claiming the ACC regular-season and tournament titles, the Tar Heels have been perched among the March Madness betting favorites since opening as a strong 10/1 bet last summer. However, the squad did not reach the top of the odds until untimely NCAA Tournament exits by betting favorites Kansas and Michigan State, rising to -105 chalk prior to Saturday’s win over the Orange.
The Tar Heels now are on an impressive 21-5 SU run in NCAA Tournament action dating to their 2009 national championship run, and they have bested the Wildcats in three tournament clashes since 2005, covering the spread in two of those meetings, according to the OddsShark College Basketball Database.
Villanova, meanwhile, is getting its first shot at a national championship since last raising the hardware in 1985.
The Wildcats have suffered just two SU losses since mid-December, en route to their third consecutive Big East regular-season championship, but struggled to meet the expectations that came along with a brief stay atop the AP Top 25 rankings, recording back-to-back ATS wins only once in the final 20 games of the regular season, 7-13 ATS.
But Villanova now is firing on all cylinders, going 5-0 SU and ATS while outscoring opponents by a whopping 24 points per game in this year’s tourney, including a 95-51 demolition of Oklahoma on Saturday, smashing the record for the largest margin of victory in a Final Four game.
Monday’s matchup marks just the third time this season that Villanova is listed as a betting underdog at the sportsbooks.
The Wildcats rocked the tournament with a 64-59 victory over Kansas in the Elite Eight, knocking off the national championship favorite Jayhawks as 2-point underdogs, but they came up short in an 86-75 loss to the Virginia Cavaliers as 5.5-point underdogs on Dec. 19, and they are 3-6 SU in their past nine as underdogs, 4-5 ATS.
Thumbnail photo via Bob Donnan/USA TODAY Sports Images
