Las Vegas Sports Books Eye North Carolina NCAA Win
April 6 (Bloomberg) -- The University of North Carolina has been favored throughout the men’s basketball tournament and a Tar Heel championship would be welcomed at most Las Vegas sports books, which face bigger payouts with a Michigan State win.
North Carolina (33-4) is a 7 1/2-point favorite over Michigan State (31-6) in tonight’s National Collegiate Athletic Association title game at Ford Field in Detroit.
North Carolina was given 2-1 odds to win the championship when the 65-team tournament started three weeks ago, while Michigan State was listed at 25-1, according to Las Vegas Sports Consultants, which advises Nevada sport books on betting lines.
“The shorter the odds, the better off we’re going to be,” Jay Rood, director of the MGM Mirage’s Race and Sports Book, said in a telephone interview. “We have almost four times more money wagered on Carolina, but our liability is different because they were such a short price.”
After reaching the Final Four, North Carolina was better than an even-money choice at 10-11, meaning it would take a $110 winning bet to return $100 plus the initial stake. Michigan State had odds of 4-1 before beating Connecticut in the national semifinals, so a winning $100 wager would yield a $500 payout. The same wager at the Spartans’ 25-1 pre-tournament odds could return a profit of $2,500.
“We are in pretty good shape with either team, albeit better shape with North Carolina,” said Jeff Sherman, assistant manager of the Las Vegas Hilton Race and Sports Book.
Second Meeting
North Carolina and Michigan State already played this season at Ford Field, with the Tar Heels routing the Spartans 98-63 on Dec. 3.
It was the fourth game in seven days for Michigan State, which also didn’t have center Goran Suton. The Spartans’ senior center, who has averaged 12.2 points and 10.6 rebounds in the NCAA tournament, missed the game with a knee injury.
“We caught them at an absolute perfect time,” North Carolina coach Roy Williams said yesterday at a news conference. “I don’t think that that game will have much, if anything, to do with the game that we play (tonight).”
RJ Bell, president of the handicapping information Web site Pregame.com, said the Las Vegas odds say North Carolina has a 77 percent chance to win tonight’s game.
“By considering the game’s point spread and total you can derive that Las Vegas expects the final score to be in the range of North Carolina 80, Michigan State 72,” Bell said.
Home State
He added that Michigan State would probably be a 10-point underdog on a neutral court, rather than just 91 miles from its East Lansing campus. The Spartans are the first team to have a chance to win the NCAA tournament in its home state since 1975, when UCLA won in San Diego. Kansas won its 1988 title in nearby Kansas City, Missouri.
North Carolina ranks second in NCAA history to Kentucky with 1,982 victories and is seeking its fifth title, having previously won championships in 1957, 1982, 1993 and 2005.
Michigan State is seeking its third NCAA title after wins in 1979 and 2000.
Both North Carolina’s Williams and Michigan State’s Tom Izzo are trying to win their second championships.
The only active college basketball coaches to have won more than one title are Mike Krzyzewski (3) and Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun and Florida’s Billy Donovan, each with two. They’re among 12 coaches with at least two titles, a list topped by John Wooden’s 10 championships at UCLA.
“John Wooden said to me once when we won our first one, ‘Welcome to the fraternity of 40,’” Izzo said. “At the time, I didn’t even know what the hell he meant. He meant there were 40 guys that have won a national championship. But then when you get into winning a second one, that group really shrinks.”
