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Jeremy Perry
Auburn vs. North Carolina Bracket Prediction: March Madness Sweet 16 Odds
The NCAA Tournament could feature its highest-scoring game this Friday night in Kansas City. Auburn and North Carolina both love to run and play fast-break basketball as this is what head coaches Bruce Pearl and Roy Williams preach to their teams.
Auburn vs. North Carolina Sweet 16 Point Spread and Betting
Auburn is 1-1 ATS in the tournament, which means they’ve now covered six of their last eight. They are 9-4 ATS in their last 13 Friday games but they are just 1-4 ATS in their last five versus the ACC.
After winning and covering against Washington, the Tar Heels have covered five of their last six overall. They have also covered four of five against teams with a winning record. Interestingly enough, under is 13-5 in their last 18 games versus a team with a winning percentage above .600.
Auburn Tigers
What are we to make of Auburn? Are they the team that nearly suffered a disastrous upset loss in their opener against No. 12 New Mexico State or are they the one that wiped the floor with No. 4 Kansas?
The Tigers could not have played much better than they did in their second-round NCAA Tournament win over the Jayhawks. They love their threes and connected on 13-of-30 in that game while making 52.5% from the field. The Jayhawks were badly exposed by Auburn’s speed and perimeter shooting but remember, this is the same squad that nearly lost to New Mexico State in their opener. They seemingly played the perfect game against Kansas but can they keep that up?
Against North Carolina, Auburn meets an opponent which wants to play as quickly and wants to run and shoot threes just as much. Auburn did not play those kinds of opponents very often in the regular season, so this game is truly a matchup of strength versus strength. Auburn will hope that in a battle of ultra-fast point guards, Jared Harper will outduel North Carolina freshman Coby White. North Carolina has more talent and depth, but if Auburn gets hot from three like they did against Kansas, look out.
North Carolina Tar Heels
The Tar Heels have the basic advantage of knowing that they almost always do well in games when they are allowed to run the court. North Carolina, more than any other major program, including Duke, loves to run. Roy Williams preaches getting the ball up the floor before the defence can set up. This is called a secondary transition game and the Tar Heels have done it better than anyone else in college basketball for a long time. Can Auburn really beat them at their own game?
Coby White is the super-talented point guard who makes the offence run is lethal from three (four-of-seven against Washington). If him and Cameron Johnson and draining threes, Auburn figures to have no shot.
What North Carolina has going for them is they can do a lot more if things go wrong. If the threes aren’t falling, they can pound it inside to Luke Maye. If the shots aren’t falling, they can rely on rebounding and second chances since they’re the No. 1 team in the country at doing that. Auburn has a smaller margin for error and that will be the difference.
