{"id":102860,"date":"2016-03-28T03:50:51","date_gmt":"2016-03-28T07:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/topbet.eu\/news\/?p=102860"},"modified":"2016-03-28T14:30:35","modified_gmt":"2016-03-28T18:30:35","slug":"north-carolina-tar-heels-vs-syracuse-orange-predictions-picks-odds-and-betting-preview-ncaa-march-madness-final-four-april-2-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/topbet.eu\/news\/north-carolina-tar-heels-vs-syracuse-orange-predictions-picks-odds-and-betting-preview-ncaa-march-madness-final-four-april-2-2016.html","title":{"rendered":"North Carolina Tar Heels vs. Syracuse Orange Predictions, Picks, Odds and Betting Preview \u2013 NCAA March Madness Final Four \u2013 April 2, 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;ve got an equal helping of the expected and the unexpected for the first of two Final Four bouts in Houston this coming Saturday, as the top-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels prepare to\u00a0square\u00a0off against the No. 10 Syracuse Orange.<\/p>\n<p>The Tar Heels have pretty much cruised right on through the final stages\u00a0the Big Dance, while the Orange have shocked the basketball world time and again with one gritty performance after another.<\/p>\n<p>Only one team from this relived ACC rivalry will advance to the the national title game on April 4. Will it be the the boys from Chapel Hill, or the ones from up on University Hill? Let&#8217;s take a further examination of\u00a0this stunning showdown below.<\/p>\n<p>For a closer look at the other similarly-thrilling Final Four matchup on tap, head on over to our in-depth preview for <a href=\"http:\/\/topbet.eu\/news\/villanova-wildcats-vs-oklahoma-sooners-predictions-picks-odds-and-betting-preview-ncaa-march-madness-final-four-april-2-2016.html\" target=\"_blank\">Villanova vs. Oklahoma<\/a> right after this.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>March Madness News &amp; Predictions<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/topbet.eu\/news\/2016-ncaa-march-madness-sleepers-and-sleeper-picks.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2016 March Madness Sleepers Predictions and Picks<\/a><\/li>\r\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/topbet.eu\/news\/2016-ncaa-march-madness-longshots-and-best-long-shots-picks.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2016 March Madness Longshots and Best Long Shots Picks and Predictions<\/a><\/li>\r\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/topbet.eu\/news\/2016-ncaa-march-madness-predictions-picks-odds-and-preview.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2016 March Madness Preview<\/a><\/li>\r\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/topbet.eu\/news\/2016-ncaa-march-madness-expert-predictions-and-picks.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2016 NCAA March Madness Expert Picks<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\n<h2>March Madness No. 1 North Carolina\u00a0vs. No. 10 Syracuse Preview<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Where:<\/strong>\u00a0NRG Stadium, Houston<\/p>\n<p><strong>When:<\/strong>\u00a0Saturday, April 2, 8:49 PM ET<\/p>\n<p><strong>Line:<\/strong>\u00a0North Carolina Tar Heels vs. Syracuse Orange\u00a0 \u2013 <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/topbet.eu\/sportsbook\/college-basketball\/ncaa-mens\" target=\"_blank\">view all March Madness lines<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>TV Broadcast:\u00a0<\/strong>TBS<\/p>\n<h3>Betting on the\u00a0North Carolina Tar Heels<\/h3>\n<p>Another March Madness, another monumental run for the North Carolina Tar Heels.<\/p>\n<p><p><a href=\"http:\/\/record.tbaffiliate.com\/_y8k7RB3Ll4xutv7iXV6HvmNd7ZgqdRLk\/14\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-97846 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/topbet.eu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/March-Madness-News-Banners_250x130_v2.gif\" alt=\"March-Madness---News-Banners_250x130_v2\" width=\"250\" height=\"130\" \/><\/a><\/p>Top-seeded UNC defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish with relative ease on Sunday, 88-74, to clinch its NCAA men&#8217;s basketball record\u00a019<sup>th<\/sup> Final Four berth. It was also the first time that the Tar Heels made the tournament&#8217;s semifinal stage since 2009, which also happens to be the year that the team last won the national title.<\/p>\n<p>Even though star guard Marcus Paige (13 points) sort of cooled down against the Irish, North Carolina&#8217;s other standout senior, forward Brice Johnson, more than made up for Paige&#8217;s lackluster night. Johnson grabbed his 23<sup>rd<\/sup> double-double of the season\u00a0\u2013 a new school record\u00a0\u2013 behind 25 points on 61.6-percent shooting from the field along with his 12 rebounds.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn&#8217;t just Johnson who dominated the boards on Sunday, as the Heels\u00a0collectively outrebounded Notre Dame 32-15 (13-5 on the offensive\u00a0end). They ranked 11<sup>th\u00a0<\/sup>in the nation this season in total rebounds (40.9 RPG), so it comes as no surprise that\u00a0extra possessions off the glass have led them to the Final Four.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, North Carolina has pretty much kept their tourney\u00a0opponents far from striking distance, winning their four prior games at the Big Dance by an average of 15.4 points.<\/p>\n<p>Not only that, but in this season&#8217;s ACC and NCAA tournaments, the Tar Heels have outscored their conference rivals by a combined 66 points. Considering that Syracuse also lost\u00a0all two of their regular season games against Chapel Hill&#8217;s finest by a total of 16 points, it seems like a foregone conclusion\u00a0that the Orange will finally meet their demise this Saturday.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/record.tbaffiliate.com\/_y8k7RB3Ll4xutv7iXV6HvmNd7ZgqdRLk\/9\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"broken_link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Create a betting account now<\/a> and cash in from all the March Madness action in an instant.<\/p>\n<h3>Betting on the\u00a0Syracuse Orange<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-102862 size-full\" title=\"NCAAB Syracuse Malachi Johnson\" src=\"http:\/\/topbet.eu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Syracuse-Malachi-Richardson.jpg\" alt=\"North-Carolina-vs-Syracuse-Predictions-Picks-March-Madness-2016\" width=\"538\" height=\"283\" srcset=\"http:\/\/topbet.eu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Syracuse-Malachi-Richardson.jpg 538w, http:\/\/topbet.eu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Syracuse-Malachi-Richardson-250x132.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 538px) 100vw, 538px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Down by 16 points at the start of the second half of the Elite Eight clash\u00a0against the Virginia Cavaliers on Sunday, it was looking like the No. 10 Syracuse Orange&#8217;s magical season was about to come to a brutal end.<\/p>\n<p>But that was until breakout freshman Malachi Richardson went supernova on the Cavaliers. Richardson scored 21 of his 23 points in the final frame of the contest to vault\u00a0the Orange to victory and into the Final Four with a\u00a0final score of 68-62. With the win, Syracuse became the first-ever 10<sup>th\u00a0<\/sup>seed in the NCAA Tournament to make the Final Four, and just the fourth double-digit seed overall.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve never been prouder in all my 40 years as coach of a basketball team as I am of this team tonight,&#8221; long-time Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said of his beloved team. However, Boeheim has still got to be concerned with how his boys shot from the floor on Sunday night.<\/p>\n<p>The Orange converted just 36.8 percent of their field-goal attempts against Virginia, whereas the Cavaliers managed to shoot better at 41.5 percent from the field and still lost\u00a0the contest. What proved to be key to Syracuse&#8217;s victory was their 13 forced turnovers that led to 15 points, while UVA fell behind in the takeaways department with just seven in the game.<\/p>\n<p>Then again, the Orange would be hard-pressed to steal some possessions away from UNC, who ranked 31<sup>st<\/sup>\u00a0in Division I with just 10.8 turnovers per game. If University Hill&#8217;s lads can&#8217;t find their shooting stroke and also fail to keep up in the battle of the boards against the Tar Heels, all their effort and tenacicty to get this far to the Big Dance\u00a0may just be all for nothing.<\/p>\n<h3>Writer\u2019s Prediction<\/h3>\n<p>UNC puts an abrupt end to Syracuse&#8217;s Cinderella season, 75-62.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/record.tbaffiliate.com\/_y8k7RB3Ll4xutv7iXV6HvmNd7ZgqdRLk\/14\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-97847 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/topbet.eu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/March-Madness-News-Banners_620x110_v2.gif\" alt=\"March-Madness---News-Banners_620x110_v2\" width=\"620\" height=\"110\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;ve got an equal helping of the expected and the unexpected for the first of two Final Four bouts in Houston this coming Saturday, as the top-seeded North Carolina Tar<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":102861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7450,70,9417],"tags":[7284,9907,9899,10903,9918,9917,9914,9898,149,940,1292,148,1276,9906,9849,9900,1170,835,969,974,11761,11762,11763,11764,11765,8261,11766,5400,1089],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v16.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>North Carolina vs Syracuse Predictions \/ Picks - March Madness 2016<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Predictions, odds and betting preview for the North Carolina vs Syracuse March Madness Final Four game on April 2, 2016, courtesy of TopBet sportsbook.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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