The first PK80 Invitational was created to honor Nike CEO and founder Phil Knight on the occasion of his 80th birthday. This is a 16-team event – not a 16-team tournament, but a 16-team event. It’s different and unique.
There are two eight-team brackets. One will unfold at the Moda Center in Portland, the other at Portland’s Memorial Coliseum. Quarterfinals will be played on Thursday, semifinals and consolation games on Friday, and the championship, third-place, fifth-place, and seventh-place games on Sunday. There will be two winners of the separate brackets, the point of emphasis being that every team in the event will get to play three neutral-site games over four days with one rest day on Saturday.
How will Portland and North Carolina fare in their quarterfinal matchup on Thursday? And can North Carolina cover the huge number?
Details
Odds: Tar Heels – 26.5
Date & Time: Thursday, November 23, 2:30 PM ET
Location: Moda Center, Portland, OR
Broadcast: ESPN
Reasons To Bet On The Portland Pilots
The North Carolina Tar Heels flew across the country to play Stanford late at night on Monday. The Tar Heels did this because head coach Roy Williams coached Jerod Haase when he was at Kansas. Haase then coached under Williams at both Kansas and North Carolina. Williams – when pupils of his go into the head coaching ranks at other schools – will schedule games against them. Therefore, with Haase now coaching Stanford, Williams wanted to schedule a game with his understudy. North Carolina went from Stanford to Portland for this PK80 tournament. The Tar Heels have been living on Pacific time for several days now. This game on Thursday is the first game of the day, at 11:30 local time in Portland. It is a very early start for a team not used to living on West Coast time. It is easy to imagine North Carolina sleepwalking through the first half of the game and never really feeling fully comfortable on the court.
Portland is playing at home and will be very fired up to play an elite school. This is something the Pilots very rarely do. If Portland can play reasonably well in the first half and North Carolina goes through a sluggish half, it is easy to see this game being tied at halftime. North Carolina could then muddle through the first several minutes of the second half, and even a late surge by the Tar Heels won’t enable them to come close to covering what is a very large spread.
Reasons To Bet On The North Carolina Tar Heels
The case for North Carolina requires very little explanation. The Tar Heels went to Stanford to play a late-night game on the road, but they cruised, winning by 24 points and never being particularly tested. Stanford is viewed as a potential bubble team for the NCAA Tournament, and North Carolina scored 96 points against the Cardinal. Stanford is a better team than Portland is, so if UNC could breeze by the Cardinal, it should beat Portland by an even larger margin.
Outlook
The Tar Heels opened up as a 26.5-point favorite and that’s where the betting line currently sits. While we haven’t seen much movement there, we have seen some changes with the total. The over-under opened up at 152.5 but now the line has inched up at 153.5.
This game doesn’t require overthinking. Portland is in this tournament because of geographical convenience, since Portland is the big city closest to Phil Knight’s corporate headquarters. The Pilots have greatly struggled the last several years in the West Coast Conference and offer no tangible sign of being able to compete with North Carolina. They lost to Portland State earlier this season. Portland might play hard, but it won’t play well. North Carolina might start slowly, but it will be hard for Portland to do anything to contain the Tar Heels after the first 10 minutes of this game. It’s a big line but look for them to win and cover.
Prediction: Tar Heels -26.5
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