Kentucky Wildcats vs North Carolina Tar Heels FREE NCAA Tournament Pick
Kentucky Wildcats (32–5 SU, 19–17–1 ATS) vs. North Carolina Tar Heels (30–7 SU, 19–15–2 ATS)
Line: North Carolina -2 | Game Time: Sunday March 26th, 5:05pm EST
Last Meeting: 12/17/16 — Kentucky 103 — UNC 100 (Kentucky covered -1 point spread)
Featured Matchup by: Vincent King of King Sports Picks
Trends:
Wildcats are 4–0 ATS in their last 4 NCAA Tournament games as an underdog
Wildcats are 10–4–1 ATS in their last 15 neutral site games
Tar Heels are 4–1 ATS in their last 5 non-conference games
Tar Heels are 6–2 ATS in their last 8 NCAA Tournament games
Tar Heels are 21–7–2 ATS in their last 30 neutral site games as a favorite
A clash of the titans or a battle of the blue-bloods, whatever you want to call it we have the premier Elite 8 matchup of the weekend. The Kentucky Wildcats take on the North Carolina Tar Heels with a trip to the Final Four on the line. Kentucky enters this game off their best win of the season, an 86–75 win over UCLA. The Bruins had the potential to win a National Championship but they ran into a buzz saw by the name of De’Aaron Fox. The Kentucky guard dropped 39 points on the Bruins and scored a season high and career high to lift the Wildcats to the Elite 8. North Carolina beat Butler, with relative ease, 92–80 and inched one step closer to another Final Four. Now we discuss which Hall of Fame coach covers the spread tonight?
Kentucky enters this game with a 32–5 record overall. The Wildcats have won every game since February 4th, a span of 14 games. Leading the offense for Kentucky is Malik Monk (20.0 PPG) and De’Aaron Fox (16.1 PPG; 4.0 RPG; 4.6 APG) but the offense isn’t limited to just two players. The Wildcats averaged 80 PPG this season while conceding 71 PPG. Head coach John Callipari has worked hard all season to get his young team to commit to the defensive end of the game and they finally bought in vs UCLA. Tonight, they face another challenge on the defensive end when they face the high scoring UNC offense.
North Carolina’s biggest challenge in the NCAA Tournament was vs Arkansas in the 2nd round. Butler put up a fight but the Tar Heels controlled the game from the tip. UNC’s offense goes through Justin Jackson (18.1 PPG; 4.7 RPG) and Joel Barry II (14.4 PPG; 3.1 RPG; 3.7 APG) but four out of five starters average double digits. As a team, UNC averages 85 PPG and conceded 70 PPG.
Both teams are loaded with talent and playing the best basketball of the season. The difference, in my opinion, will be the experience of North Carolina. Kentucky’s top 3 scorers are freshmen compared the juniors and seniors on North Carolina’s top players. UNC’s roster is poised for a National Championship run and have the experience to do so this season. I think Kentucky will be more than ready to play tonight and will put up a good fight but in the end, during crunch time, UNC will pull away and punch their ticket to the Final Four.
