The No. 1 North Carolina Tar Heels may have looked the most impressive through their first two games of the NCAA Tournament but not far behind them in the court of public opinion have been the No. 5 Auburn Tigers. Auburn destroyed Kansas in the second round and is riding a 10-game win streak coming into this matchup. North Carolina will look to stop Auburn’s excellent three-point shooting and opened as a 5-point favorite with a total of 162.
Auburn vs North Carolina Game Center
STANDOUT STATS
- North Carolina was the best rebounding team in the NCAA this season at 44.3 boards per game with a +11.1 rebounding differential. That will be crucial to ensure that Auburn doesn’t get second-chance points as the Tigers destroyed Kansas with three-point shooting and kicking it back to the perimeter for another attempt.
- In two tournament games so far, the Tigers have shot the lights out from behind the arc. They’ve taken 61 three-point attempts vs Kansas and New Mexico State and hit 25 of them. They also committed only seven turnovers when they faced the Jayhawks, which could be critical vs the Tar Heels as UNC averages 14 forced turnovers per contest (ranked 83rd).
- North Carolina allowed opponents to score an average of 72 points per game but played in the ACC, a stronger conference than the SEC. The Tar Heels still fared well by limiting opponents to 41 percent from the field and 33 percent from behind the arc.
- Auburn has flipped a switch and has yet to lose in March. The Tigers have won 10 straight games with an average win margin of 7.5 points while taking down the likes of Tennessee (twice), Kansas and Florida.
- Dating back to the SEC championship game, the Tigers have been a great wager for OVER bettors. They’ve averaged 83.6 points per game while shooting over 40 percent from three-point range. The OVER also hit in each of those outings.
My Best Bet for Auburn vs UNC
UNC -5
This one will all come down to three-point shooting as Auburn has been nearly unstoppable behind the arc and it makes teams press harder to try to close the gap. When Auburn faced Kansas, it blitzed the Jayhawks with a flurry of threes and counter-attacking and gave Kansas no chance to make up the ground.
However, UNC showed in its game vs Washington that transition defense is crucial in stopping the Tar Heels because any time the Huskies made a basket, the Heels roared down the court to get an easy layup. I think the Tigers have better athletes to keep pace with the Heels and I expect a high-scoring game but I think North Carolina’s rebounding and ability to defend the perimeter will end up being the difference in shutting down Auburn. Since I have UNC winning the national title, I think the Tar Heels can figure out how to neutralize the Tigers’ deep shooting and limit them to being a half-court team.
