Kansas and North Carolina are the final teams left standing in the 2022 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. These powerhouse programs will now contend for a national championship this evening.
After navigating through the March Madness bracket to reach the Final Four, these blue bloods each won in New Orleans on Saturday to earn a spot in the 2022 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Game.
Read on to find out everything you need to know to watch this thrilling game tonight. The viewing guide below shows the full UNC vs. Kansas schedule, start time, TV channel and live stream site.
You can also check out the latest March Madness odds via FanDuel and an updated NCAA Tournament bracket that shows the path that both the Jayhawks and Tar Heels took to reach this point:
2022 NCAA Tournament National Championship Game
Matchup: No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 8 North Carolina
Date: Monday, April 4
Start Time: 9:20 p.m. ET
TV Channel: TBS
Streaming: March Madness Live
Location: Caesars Superdome, New Orleans, LA
Updated March Madness Bracket
Click on the above picture for the printable NCAA Tournament bracket.
Kansas vs. North Carolina Odds
Point Spread: KU -4
The Jayhawks are four-point chalk in this contest and the public generally likes the team at that number.
Since opening as 4.5-point favorites, Kansas has drawn 55% of all bets and 77% of the money wagered against the spread.
Despite this rather lopsided action, most books have dropped KU down to a half-point. That indicates that wise guys are making a contrarian play and betting on UNC as an underdog in the national championship game.
Total: Over-Under 152 points
The betting public tends to root for a high-scoring affair in marquee college basketball contests and this one won’t be any different.
As of Monday morning, over 60 percent of wagers are on the over. A significant portion of sharp bettors see the 152-point total as slightly inflated though, evidenced by only 51 percent of the handle on the over.
The over-under has remained relatively stable since first going up on the board, dropping just a half-point since Saturday evening.
Moneyline: KU -200, UNC +160
Those wishing to eschew the spread and simply pick a winner in the 2022 national title game will find Kansas as a -200 favorite to claim the school’s fourth NCAA Tournament championship.
Those odds imply a 67 percent probability that the Jayhawks win this evening, but bettors will need to risk $2 to win $1 on the result.
As a +160 underdog, North Carolina has a 38 percent implied probability of pulling another March Madness upset. Backers would net $1.60 for each $1 wagered if the Tar Heels can win their seventh NCAA Tournament title.
2022 NCAA Tournament National Championship Game Preview, Prediction
Kansas and UNC are two of college basketball’s most decorated programs and both have been involved in national title tilts plenty of times before.
The Jayhawks have been to five national championship games—winning two of them—since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. KU hasn’t been back since coming up just short a decade ago, however, and hasn’t cut down the final set of nets since winning it all back in 2008.
The Tar Heels have also reached five NCAA Tournament finals since 1985 but have been much more successful than their upcoming opponent in these contests. UNC settled for second place just once in that span (2016) and won four championships, the most recent of which came five years ago.
This will be the 12th time that Kansas and North Carolina will meet on the hardwood. Six of those 11 previous matchups between these prestigious programs occurred during March Madness. They clashed for the first time in an epic triple-overtime game that decided the 1957 national championship and have since battled in three more Final Four games, the most recent in 2008.
North Carolina holds a 6-5 all-time edge in this series, but Kansas has been the far more successful squad in recent years. The Jayhawks have won each of the past three matchups, including a Sweet 16 victory in 2013, an Elite 8 win in 2012 and the aforementioned Final Four win in 2008.
Kansas is now favored to win its first showdown with the Tar Heels in nine years. The Jayhawks opened as 4.5-point favorites in the 2022 NCAA Tournament finale, a testament to how well they have been playing leading up to national championship game.
KU did appear vulnerable at times in the Round of 32 and Sweet 16 but turned on the jets in the Elite 8 and hasn’t slowed down since. In the Midwest regional final, Kansas ended No. 10 Miami’s chances of a Cinderella run to the Final Four with a 76-50 blowout win.
The Jayhawks took South region champion Villanova down easily on Saturday, securing an 81-65 “W” over the No. 2-seeded Wildcats.
UNC is likely to provide the toughest test this top-seeded Kansas squad has faced during the 2022 NCAA Tournament.
Although the Tar Heels started off as an unheralded No. 8 seed, they proved they are a worthy national championship contender by besting reigning champion Baylor—the East region’s No. 1 seed—in the second round and toppling No. 4 UCLA, another defending Final Four team, in the Sweet 16.
North Carolina handled its business against March Madness darling Saint Peter’s in the Elite 8—the Peacocks became the only No. 15 seed in history to reach a regional final—before squaring off with longtime nemesis Duke in the Final Four.
The Tar Heels left zero doubts about their ability to beat anyone in the nation on Saturday, sending Blue Devils head coach Mike Krzyzewski into retirement with one final loss to his longtime rival. UNC displayed resilience in a contest with 12 ties and 18 lead changes, closing out the game on a 11-3 run to earn a national championship game berth.
UNC must now prove it can stop a Kansas side that hit home on over 50 percent of its three-point attempts in the Final Four and hasn’t shot below 50 percent from the floor since the Elite 8. The Jayhawks are dialed in and playing the best basketball in the country, making them the team to beat with the national title on the line.
Those looking for an against the spread pick here should lay the points and go with Kansas. The Tar Heels are on a fantastic March Madness run, but they won’t overcome this rock-solid Jayhawks squad in the national championship game.
Pick: Kansas -4
Prediction: Kansas 77 – North Carolina 72
