NCAA Tournament Odds: Pitt vs N.C. Asheville Preview & Pick
Looking for the #1 Internet gambling & NCAA Basketball handicapping info site on the WWW? Get the best College basketball picks in the industry to help you win more when you bet on March Madness with CappersPicks.com.
CLICK HERE TO JOIN SPORTSBOOK.COM – ONE OF OUR TOP RATED ONLINE SPORTSBOOKS – 50% SIGN UP BONUS FOR CBB BETTING ONLINE
Southeast Region Bracket
#16 N.C. Asheville vs. #1 Pitt Panthers Matchup
Date: Thursday, March 17, 3:10 p.m. ET
Venue: Verizon Center, Washington, DC
Broadcast: CBS
N.C. Asheville Bulldogs vs. Pitt Panthers betting lines from Sportsbook.com
Money Line: OFF
Spread: OFF
Over/Under: OFF
Check Out Our Indepth CBB ATS Betting Stats For This Game —>
Bet Now @ Sportsbook.com
Finally, March Madness has arrived. The action kicks off in a huge way this week, with hoops fans looking for potential upsets. No. 1 Pittsburgh faces No. 16 N.C. Asheville.
Pitt (27-5, 14-13 ATS) was rather pleased to still get a No. 1 seed after getting bounced from the Big East Tournament 76-74 by Connecticut. It was a rather disappointing result, considering the Panthers were the top-ranked team in the tourney, although losing to the Huskies is nothing to sneeze at; after all, UConn superstar Kemba Walker buried a shot at the buzzer to win the game.
The bigger concern, of course, is that Pitt is limping into March Madness with little momentum on its side. The Panthers have lost just five games all year, but three of those losses have come in the past six games. Pitt was favored in two of them (against UConn and St. John’s), but all three came on the road or neutral locations.
The offense is driven by a pair of dynamic guards, Aston Gibbs and Brad Wannamaker. Gibbs leads the team with 16.7 points per game, and he can hardly be blamed for Pitt’s recent slump; the junior scored 27 against Connecticut and 26 points against St. John’s. Wannamaker scored 17 points against the Huskies, but he hasn’t played great basketball lately. In the two games before that, the senior hit just two of his 13 field goal attempts, finishing with 10 total points between the two contests.
While Gibbs and Wannamaker may grab headlines, the key to Pitt’s success is often defense and rebounding. The Panthers rank 22nd in the country with 61 points allowed per game, and they produced the second-best rebounding margin in the nation at plus-10.3 (Old Dominion was tops at plus-12.2).
N.C. Asheville (20-13, 3-1 ATS) rolls into the tournament on an impressive winning streak. The Bulldogs have ripped off seven consecutive victories, and they’ve been just as good against the spread, going 3-0-1 in their past four games. Asheville settled for a push in its 81-77 win over Arkansas-Little Rock in the 16-seed play-in game. That win earned the Bulldogs a date with Pitt.
The Bulldogs have ridden the backcourt duo of Matt Dickey and J.P. Primm all season, and it was no different against Arkansas on Tuesday. The junior guards dropped 22 points each while combining for eight assists and nine rebounds. Primm added three steals. They’re very effective at getting to the line, as Dickey and Primm combined to go 18-21 from the charity stripe.
A secret weapon could be D.J. Cunningham. The sophomore center has battled injuries all season and missed a handful of games, but there’s no denying he can be an impact player. For example, during a four-game stretch in late December, Cunningham averaged 16.0 points and 8.7 rebounds. If he can replicate those results, perhaps the Bulldogs can put a scare into Pitt.
In fact, considering Pitt isn’t playing its best basketball right now, it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see N.C. Asheville give the Panthers a game—at least for a little while. The Bulldogs have all kinds of momentum, and they’ll be scrappy enough to cover before Pitt puts it away.
Trends:
Under is 7-1 in PITT last 8 overall.
Over is 8-2 in PITT last 10 non-conference games.
Under is 7-2 in PITT last 9 Thu. games.
N.C. Asheville vs. Pitt Pick: Bulldogs
Ian Van Den Hurk has covered amateur and pro sports for years, including a successful run handicapping anything from football to mixed martial arts.
