
UNC basketball odds to make NCAA Tournament according to FanDuel
We're in the home stretch on Selection Sunday, with many college basketball fans wondering: will the North Carolina Tar Heels make the NCAA Tournament?
UNC is currently on the outside looking in, with Joe Lunardi putting North Carolina amongst his "First Four Out" Saturday night. The Tar Heels were amongst the "Last Four In" entering Friday night's ACC Tournament Semifinals matchup against archrival Duke, but another heartbreaking loss in the final seconds move the Tar Heels' positioning.
UNC got some much-needed help from VCU on Sunday afternoon, as the Rams beat George Mason in the Atlantic 10 Championship, which prevents a stolen bid. North Carolina also needs Memphis to beat UAB in the American Athletic Conference Championship, a game which will end just before Selection Sunday starts at 6 p.m. ET.
There's also betting odds for the Tar Heels to make the NCAA Tournament, but those aren't extremely favorable. As of 4 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 16, FanDuel gave UNC +195 odds to grab a spot in the Big Dance.
North Carolina was at +300 on Saturday night, but as we mentioned before, VCU dished out a major assist by beating George Mason.
The Tar Heels and Texas Longhorns have identical odds to make the NCAA Tournament, while Indiana is most likely to advance amongst bubble teams. I simply don't understand why Xavier has better odds than Texas and UNC – the Longhorns have a 7-10 record in Quad 1 games, while UNC and Xavier both have just one Quad 1 victory each. As weak as the ACC is this year, it's stronger than the Big East.
Follow us @TarHeelsWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


USA Today
17 minutes ago
- USA Today
Date announced for annual Michigan State Madness event
Michigan State basketball has announced the date for its annual Michigan State Madness event. Michigan State Madness will be held on October 3, with the doors expected to open at 8 p.m. ET. Michigan State Madness is the annual preseason event held by the Spartans' men's and women's basketball programs that includes open practice, player contests and fun themed entrances. This is essentially the event previously known as midnight madness. Michigan State Madness is considered a celebration of the start of the college basketball season, which will officially start in early November with the first regular season games taking place. Admission is free for the event. Both the men's and women's basketball teams are coming off strong seasons last year, with both reaching the NCAA Tournament. Similar expectations are in play again for both teams as we look ahead to the 2025-26 season. Click here to see the complete details on the event from Michigan State. Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan State news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Robert Bondy on X @RobertBondy5.


USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Q&A: Azzi Fudd dishes on Paige Bueckers, UConn life, and more
UConn Huskies guard Azzi Fudd is up for the challenge that life brings. The Huskies star is entering her fifth season with head coach Geno Auriemma and the program. Under Auriemma's guidance, Fudd has numerous accolades to her name, including making the 2022 Big East All-Freshman Team and the 2025 First-team All-Big East team. Fudd also had a fantastic NCAA Tournament run with UConn this year as the program took home its 12th championship under Auriemma. During the tournament, she also earned Most Outstanding Player honors. As she prepares for the next phase in her hoops career, Fudd connected with Instagram and its Close Friends Only podcast to dive into her connection with Paige Bueckers, basketball, how she uses the app to stay connected to friends and more. Fudd told For the Win that she thought the whole experience would be fun and cool, and there was another thing that enticed her. "To do it with Paige [Bueckers] is another perk," she said. (We agree, Azzi Fudd. We agree.) For The Win chatted with Fudd about life at UConn, her favorite WNBA players, Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier (and, of course, Bueckers), plus what she really thinks about her famous "People's Princess" nickname. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. Why are Napheesa Collier and Paige Bueckers your favorite WNBA players? Are there any parts of their games that you would add to yours? Napheesa [Collier's] my favorite. I just think she is such a talented and skilled player and watching her play, it's just flawless. I would definitely take her footwork. She makes it look so easy, and I feel like no matter what ― she's one of those unguardable players because she always has a counter to what the defense is doing. There's nothing you can do to kind of stop her, which I love. ... You can tell she's a boss, and I love it. But she's also very chill throughout the game. And Paige [Bueckers], I love watching her play. I think she brings so much to the game, on both ends of the floor, and I love her energy and her passion that she plays with. You can tell how much she loves the game, but I definitely wouldn't take anything from a game because I'm better than her. [laughs] I would take her passing. She's a great passer. Do you feel any pressure now as the leader of UConn women's basketball? No, I don't feel any pressure. I'm excited. I think it's definitely gonna be a challenge for me because it's kind of outside of my comfort zone to use my voice as much. That's something I don't really do, but something that I know I need to work on. So, I love a challenge, and you know everyone's challenging me. So I gotta step up and do it. So I'm excited for that. Is there any advice that Geno Auriemma gave you about taking over? I think, you know, what the coaches have just been saying is, "You've been here the longest. You know what you're doing. You know what you're talking about. So trust that." What past UConn legends have shared wisdom with you? Sue [Bird] always has a bunch of wisdom, and I texted her about talking to her just to pick her brain, ask some questions, because when you think about leaders, I mean, UConn has created so many incredible basketball players. But I feel like when you think of one of the best generals, you think of her. So just picking her brain. I wanna pick her brain and ask her things and just how it was for her and how she's been able to be this incredible leader. We heard you like cooking videos. What's your best dish you would put up against anybody? My teammates make fun of me for everything I make because I'm healthy, and so they think everything is gross. Also, I only cook for myself. You know, when you cook for yourself, it's what you wanna eat and whatever. I feel like I love making breakfast. ... Or last year I made a bunch of salmon bowls, so with like quinoa, some sort of green, a grain, salmon and like other veggies on top. I'm also probably the biggest cottage cheese fan you'll ever meet. So I always put cottage cheese in whenever I'm eating, which is a hot take, but I'll stand by it any day of the week. But I do make a good salmon bowl. ...I feel like stir fry is another go-to. How do you feel about your "People's Princess" nickname? I mean I feel like when someone gives you a nickname, the odds it being a good nickname like this are very low like. I think this is a great nickname. I feel like there could be some really bad ones people came up with. So I'm, I'm happy that it was this. Will you continue using it this season? I have no idea. I don't talk about myself, I don't say like, "Oh,. I'm Azzi. You can call me the "people's princess." I don't say that. So [if] people continue to call me that, I won't be upset. But if people stop, then that's fine. Who is someone that you admire in women's college basketball that you feel like deserves more recognition? I'm gonna go with Ashlynn Shade and KK Arnold. I admire them a lot, and I feel like they could never have enough recognition for what they do and what they bring on and off the court for our team ― just the energy, the intensity and just the constant work ethic they have. I feel like they're two staples and a big part of the core of our team.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
How Browns QB Shedeur Sanders played in preseason debut vs. Panthers
The post How Browns QB Shedeur Sanders played in preseason debut vs. Panthers appeared first on ClutchPoints. The Cleveland Browns got their preseason underway on Friday night against the Carolina Panthers, and all eyes were on Shedeur Sanders for his NFL debut. With Dillon Gabriel and Kenny Pickett sidelined due to hamstring injuries and Joe Flacco sitting out due to his veteran status, the door was wide open for Sanders to come in and impress the Cleveland coaching staff. Some thought that with a good performance, the Colorado product may even be able to move up from his current fourth-string spot on the depth chart. The fifth-round pick played nearly three quarters before recent free-agent addition Tyler Huntley came in and took over for the fourth quarter, but he showed off some impressive traits in the first three periods. Overall, Sanders finished 14-for-23 with 138 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran the ball four times for 19 yards. Let's dive into the game as a whole and look at how Sanders looked in his first NFL action. Shedeur Sanders' downfield accuracy, timing were on display For the most part, Sanders looked like his college self on Friday night in both good ways and bad. However, the good popped up time and time again as he led the Browns up and down the field in the second quarter. The first thing that stuck out about Sanders was his timing, especially working in quick game. On early downs, Sanders got the ball out of his hand on time for the most part and kept the offense on schedule, which led to more manageable situations on late downs. Sanders also showed his trademark toughness that became a staple of his game at Colorado, hanging in tight pockets behind the Browns' backup offensive line and still delivering the ball down the field. While Sanders had some uncharacteristic misses underneath on a few in-breaking routes, but his accuracy down the field was on point. His first NFL touchdown came on a bootleg out to the left where Sanders drifted out of the pocket and got his feet set before firing a perfectly-placed strike into the back of the end zone, just over the outstretched arms of a sinking cornerback, to Kaden Davis for his first career touchdown. Sanders' second touchdown was another excellent play. He quickly dodged a blitzed up the middle, allowing his running back to pick up the pressure, before firing a bullet on a dig route into a tight window in the end zone for the duo's second scoring connection of the night. On that second touchdown drive, Sanders rolled out to his right and floated a beautiful touch pass on the run to Luke Floriea, who reeled it in with one hand. The Colorado product was also very effective as a scrambler in this game, picking up a pair of first downs with his legs after escaping the pocket. While he isn't the fastest player on the field and he didn't scramble as much at Colorado, he showed on Friday night that it's a part of his game that can be an asset to the offense. Where Sanders can improve after debut The first, and probably the most puzzling part of this otherwise impressive debut was that Sanders had a couple of inaccurate misses on underneath routes that he usually hits on the numbers 100 times out of 100. He missed a pair of slant routes up high, putting his wideouts at risk of big hits over the middle. He also missed one in-breaker far behind the receiver (who still made a difficult catch). There were a few misses on what appeared to be miscommunications, which is bound to happen in the preseason with so many new pieces playing together for the first time. Those blips in accuracy will get cleaned up with more reps with the same guys, and when Sanders starts to play with the starting receivers some more. The more concerning part of this game was the skittishness at times in the pocket, which was one of the biggest red flags around Sanders coming out of school. He still has a proclivity to escape out of the pocket backwards and get far behind the line of scrimmage while trying to find someone open, all while refusing to turn the ball away. There were two major instances of this in his debut, ending in a throwaway and him scampering out of bounds for a two-yard loss. While he may be quick enough to escape college pass rushers and some backup defensive linemen in the preseason, that still isn't going to fly against starting NFL edge rushers. There are no alarm bells to sound here, and this is something that we already knew he had to improve. However, moving forward there needs to be some willingness to escape up in the pocket to avoid the catastrophic, drive-killing plays that popped up at times in Colorado. It should be mentioned as some context here that the Browns' backup offensive line protecting Sanders was not good, similar to the pass protection that he managed during his time at Colorado. Playing with the ones should also help alleviate this problem somewhat. Overview Overall, this was a positive performance for Sanders in his first preseason game, one that should earn him some more reps in this Browns offense moving forward through training camp. Joe Flacco will likely begin the regular season as the starter and rightfully so, but Sanders would be my pick as the backup at the moment. Neither side of the discourse will be normal about basically any performance from Sanders, but there's no question that this was a step in the right direction even with the few things that need to be improved upon. Related: Browns QB Shedeur Sanders fires back at reporter after preseason debut Related: Shedeur Sanders gets a major shoutout from Jamie Foxx's Steamin' Willie Beamen in Browns debut