The 4th seed Butler Bulldogs face the top-seed North Carolina Tar Heels in a South Region Sweet 16 NCAA Tournament game that will take place at a neutral site at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tennessee on Friday, March 24 at 7:09 PM ET. The NCAAB betting board lists UNC as a -7.5 point spread favorite over Butler. The O/U line for this match is listed at 153 points, up a half point from its opening line.
Butler is coming off a 74-65 win over Middle Tennessee State in the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament where they covered the 2.5-point line. The total number of points scored in the game was 139, which was under the closing line of 139.5. The Bulldogs have covered the spread in their last two games after failing to do so in two in a row and in their last four games the total has gone under every time. Butler had lost two in a row before winning their first two NCAA Tournament games.
North Carolina is coming off a 72-65 win over Arkansas in their last game where they failed to cover the spread as an 11.5-point favorite. The total number of points scored in the game was 137, which was well under the closing line of 165.5. The Tar Heels have failed to cover the spread in two of their last three games and previous to the Arkansas game the total had gone under in two in a row. North Carolina has won four of their last five games.
Offensively, Butler is putting up 76.2 points per game on a 47.9% FG average. On the defensive side of the ball the Bulldogs are allowing 68.2 points on a 44.2% FG average.
North Carolina is putting up 85.1 points per game, which ranks 10th in the nation, on a 46.7% FG average. On defense the Tar Heels are allowing 70.3 points per game on a 41.7% FG average
These teams last met in the 2014 season were Butler beat North Carolina 74-66.
Butler Bulldogs at North Carolina Tar Heels Betting Trends
- UNC is 6-2-1 against the spread in their last 9 Friday games.
- The game total has gone under in 10 of the Tar Heels last 15 games overall.
- The game total has gone under in 10 of North Carolina’s last 14 games overall.
Public Money Consensus
In this NCAAB matchup between Butler and North Carolina have the public leaning to the Bulldogs getting the 7.5 points with 53%. The over/under bettors are definitively leaning to this game going over the posted total line of 153 with 68% on board.
