North Carolina opens as a 2-point favorite in championship game once again

By Case Keefer (contact)

Saturday, April 1, 2017 | 9:30 p.m.

A desire to get back to the same spot they were in a year ago has fueled North Carolina throughout this year’s NCAA Tournament.

Even the Tar Heels couldn’t have known their position going into the national championship game would wind up this identical. For the second straight year, North Carolina opened as a 2-point favorite in Las Vegas sports books in the final college basketball game of the year.

North Carolina will try to atone for last year’s 77-74 upset loss to Villanova against Gonzaga in a 6:20 tip Monday night in Glendale, Ariz. Sports books posted the over/under at 154.5 points.

Bookmakers projected the Tar Heels as a 2-point favorite over the Bulldogs going into the Final Four, and neither teams’ performance swayed that assessment in Saturday night’s semifinals. Both favored No. 1 seeds won, but failed to cover the spread.

Gonzaga edged South Carolina 77-73 as 6.5-point favorites behind 23 points from Findlay Prep graduate Nigel Williams-Goss and 14 points, 13 rebounds and six blocks from Bishop Gorman grad Zach Collins. That set the stage for North Carolina to escape Oregon 77-76 as 5-point favorites behind crucial rebounds in the final seconds from Kennedy Meeks, who grabbed a total of 14 boards.

The evenly matched pairing makes it four straight years that the championship game has featured a point spread of less than 3 points.

“I think Gonzaga has a few issues, but they’ve been able to overcome them all season,” MGM Resorts vice president of race and sports Jay Rood said earlier this week. “And UNC hits some dead spots from time to time and has to come back; that’s been a theme this season. They’re not steady consistent.”

North Carolina and Gonzaga is the matchup sports books sought to stimulate the largest betting handle once the Final Four was set.

“I think it’s always preferable when you have two No. 1 seeds and such a storied school like North Carolina,” Sunset Station sports book director Chuck Esposito said. “Gonzaga has a really good following, too.”

North Carolina covered and won in its other two national championship game appearances under coach Roy Williams — beating Michigan State 89-72 as 7.5-point favorites in 2009 and Illinois 75-70 as 2-point favorites in 2005. But the underdog has won outright each of the last three years to conclude the NCAA Tournament.

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.