ACC Now Podcast: Last-minute tips for filling out a bracket and a Duke-Carolina final?
Duke and North Carolina, the fiercest of college basketball rivals separated by a mere eight miles, have never played in the NCAA Tournament.
The Blue Devils and Tar Heels, however, are the two favorites to win this year’s event, which begins in earnest Thursday. And some are predicting the Tobacco Road rivals to meet in for the national championship on April 3 in Glendale, Ariz.
“There certainly making this one tough by putting them all the way on opposite sides,” Joe Giglio, sports writer for The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer, said on the latest episode of the ACC Now Podcast. “I just don’t know who is going to knock them out.”
Giglio and host Brian Murphy broke down the entire field of 68, providing tips to filling out your bracket this week.
Duke has won two of the team’s three meetings this season, including a come-from-behind win in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament last week. Duke is 6-to-1 to win the NCAA title. North Carolina is 7-to-1, meaning you would win $700 on a $100 bet, according to Bovada.com.
“I’m calling for the complete redemption tour for (North Carolina coach) Roy (Williams), too, to finally get that win over Kansas and then to kind of vanquish Duke once and for all in the championship game,” Giglio said.
Both teams face stiff obstacles to simply reaching the Final Four, much less winning the title.
[Duke-North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament title game: Why not?]
[Prepare yourself now for the UNC-Duke apocalypse – Luke DeCock]
[Arizona over Kansas, says Sam Mellinger of The Kansas City Star]
Duke, the No. 2 seed in the East Region, may have to get past defending national champion and No. 1 overall seed Villanova to reach the Final Four. The tantalizing match-up would be played March 26 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Villanova is 8 to 1 to win the championship.
North Carolina, the No. 1 seed in the South Region, could have to face No. 2 seed Kentucky or No. 3 seed UCLA — powerhouse programs in their own right — to reach the Final Four. Kentucky beat North Carolina in one of the most memorable games of the season in December.
Kentucky and UCLA are 10 to 1 to win the title. Arizona, the No. 2 seed in the West Region, is also 7 to 1 to win the title. Kansas, the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region, is 8 to 1, and Gonzaga, the No. 1 seed in the West, is 9 to 1.
ESPN’s 25 college basketball analysts have no definitive favorite to cut down the nets. They picked nine different teams to win the title — North Carolina (4), Duke (4), Gonzaga (4), Villanova (4), Arizona (3), Kansas (3), Kentucky (1), UCLA (1) and Michigan (1).
FiveThirtyEight.com gives Villanova a best chance to win the title at 15 percent, followed by Gonzaga at 14 percent and Kansas at 10 percent. Duke and North Carolina a 7 percent chance to win it all, according to the website.
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This story was originally published March 15, 2017 at 2:07 PM with the headline "ACC Now Podcast: Last-minute tips for filling out a bracket and a Duke-Carolina final?."