LSU vs North Carolina: March Madness Predictions
Written March 21, 2009 by Anthony Moretti
The number one seeded North Carolina Tar Heels are set to face off against the eight seeded LSU Tigers tonight in second round NCAA tournament action in Greensboro, North Carolina. UNC opened up pretty much as everyone expected, rolling over Radford by a final of 101-58. LSU was marked as a possible 9 seed/8 seed upset victim with their first round game against Butler, but the Tigers prevailed and walked away with a 75-71 victory.
LSU had some good performances on Thursday to lead the way over Butler. Marcus Thorton had the most impressive of those performances hitting 10 of 15 from the floor and leading the team with 30 points. LSU shot well from three-point range in the game, 43% as a team, and they will need to do exactly that against the Tar Heels if they want to have any chance in this game. North Carolina doesn’t have many weaknessess, but any team is vulnerable to a squad who gets hot from beyond the arc.
Simply put, the Tar Heels score a massive amount of points. They were second overall in the nation with 90.5 points per game, and that’s playing in the very competitive ACC for the majority of the year. There is a possiblity that the ACC Player of the year, UNC point guard Ty Lawson, will be out again for this game. While his presence is certainly missed, the Tar Heels didn’t miss a step against Radford and I don’t expect them to do that here. There is just too much talent here and if the first game of the tournament is any indication of how hungry this team is to win the championship, it looks like North Carolina is out for blood. What’s amazing about UNC is that, even without Lawson, they have so many weapons. There is of course last year’s player of the year, Tyler Hansbrough, who is again in the running for that honor with 21.4 points and 8.1 rebounds per game, plus Wayne Ellington, who averages 15.5 points per game and Danny Green who posts 13.3 ppg. The Tar Heels have several different ways to hurt you on the offensive side of things and they will use them all to ensure no slip ups in the second round. North Carolina is an 11.5 point favorite over LSU, but even that may be giving the Tigers too much credit.
LSU had a solid season and they may have been the best team in the SEC overall this year. With that being said, they truly do not have the firepower to maintain the scoring pace that North Carolina sets. I’m not a big fan of taking double digit favorites in college basketball, especially in the second round of the tournament, but LSU is totally out matched.
Pick: Take North Carolina -11.5
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