Final Four Prview

March Madness Final Four Preview

Added on Apr 04, 2009 by sbworld in

The first of the 2 March Madness Final Four games to be played on Saturday night pits the #1 seed Connecticut Huskies (31-4) against the #2 seed Michigan State Spartans (30-6). This will be the first meeting between these squads since 2000 when Michigan State won an 85-66 home game that saw them listed as 7.5-point favorites on the spread.

This time around it’s the Huskies who are favored by 4 points with an over/under sports betting total at 134 points at Bookmaker.com. The point spread has not moved at all but the total has seen some under betting since opening at 135.

Michigan State has gotten here with 4 straight point spread covers over Robert Morris, USC, Kansas, and Louisville while the Huskies are also perfect at covering the spread in tournament action with wins over Tennessee-Chattanooga, Texas A&M, Purdue, and Missouri. Michigan State has been better at covering the spread this season with a 20-12-1 record compared to 15-14 for Connecticut.

The Huskies have the superior offense while Villanova has better defensive numbers on the season. The rebounding and turnover edges both go to the favored Huskies while Michigan State probably has a slightly deeper bench. This should be a close game and although Connecticut has superior athletes, a game that goes down to the wire should surprise no one.

Next up in the Saturday Final Four games is the #3 seed Villanova Wildcats (30-7) facing off against the #1 seed North Carolina Tar Heels (32-4). The year 2005 was the last matchup between these teams and although North Carolina held on for a 67-66 home win, it was the Wildcats who covered the double digit point spread which had them at +11.

5Dimes.com favors the Tar Heels by 7 points in this game after opening up at -8. The point total is at 159 and has also seen movement from under bettors who moved the number down from it’s opener of 160.

North Carolina is another team who has covered in all 4 of their NCAA tournament games with wins over Radford, LSU, Gonzaga, and Oklahoma. Villanova has covered in their last 3 straight against UCLA, Duke, and Pittsburgh, but missed covering the betting line by 2 points in their opening round game against American in which Villanova won 80-67.

The Tar Heels have the edge in nearly everything statistically and Villanova’s only hope for keeping this one close may be a bench that contributes more then North Carolina gets from their non-starters. North Carolina is a superior team but anyone can have an off night and this game could be closer then most people expect.