On Thursday, the Alabama Crimson Tide and the North Carolina Tar Heels are scheduled to face off in Los Angeles, marking one of the eight matchups in the NCAA Tournament’s round of 16. Seeded as the 4th seed in the West Region, the Alabama Crimson Tide will take on the top-seeded North Carolina.
Under the guidance of coach Nate Oats, the Alabama Crimson Tide enter the game with a season record of 23-11. They secured victories against Charleston in the first round and Grand Canyon in the second round, ultimately finishing fifth in the SEC regular season standings.
Meanwhile, the North Carolina Tar Heels aim for their 30th win of the season, boasting a 29-7 record with an impressive nine wins in their last ten games. Their sole loss during this stretch came against North Carolina State in the ACC title game. Notably, the Tar Heels claimed victories over Wagner in the first round and Michigan State in the previous matchup.
The last meeting between these two teams occurred in late November of 2022, with the Alabama Crimson Tide emerging victorious with a score of 103-101. Despite this, the Tar Heels enter this game as favorites with a -4.5 spread. The total points expected from this highly anticipated matchup are set at 173.5.
Tar Heels Back to the Top
The North Carolina Tar Heels were the final #1 seed in the big dance, which is why they are sent to Los Angeles. The Tar Heels though have been impressive all season. North Carolina has just seven losses, with their first coming at Thanksgiving against Villanova. In other non conference games, the Tar Heels beat Tennessee, but lost games to UConn and Kentucky
The Tar Heels are scoring 87.5 points per game in the NCAA Tournament. Defensively, the Tar Heels are allowing teams to score just 65.5 per game. North Carolina on the season is scoring 81.8 per game. The Tar Heels are one of the best rebounding teams in all of College Basketball, with 38.1 per game.
The top scorer for the Tar Heels this season has been RJ Davis. The guard is scoring 21.3 points per game. Armando Bacot, the leading scorer on the runner up team back in 2022 is second, with 14.4 per game. In the win over Michigan State, Davis scored 20 and Bacot added 18.
Oats and the Crimson Tide Underdogs
The Alabama Crimson Tide come into this game playing the underdog role. The Crimson Tide started the season 5-2 during November. Their two losses were to Ohio State, and Clemson. They then dropped three straight, to Purdue, Creighton and Arizona.
Mark Sears is the main man for the Crimson Tide offense. Sears is scoring mor than 21 points per game. Aaron Estrada is second on the team with 13.2 per game. The Crimson Tide have four guys scoring double digits per game.
Alabama is the third-best three-point shooting team in the nation. The Crimson Tide make 11 threes per game. In the win over Grand Canyon, they knocked down 8, while they hit 13 in the first-round win over Charleston.
Tar Heels Roll
Alabama made quite a few mistakes in the win over Grand Canyon. If that happens in this game, they are going to be in big trouble. North Carolina likes to take mistakes and eat them up.
We like North Carolina to score a ton of points here against a questionable defense in Alabama. The Tar Heels win this game by double digits. We will take North Carolina 92-78 over the Alabama Crimson Tide. That also makes us take the UNDER in this game.
Enjoy the game and best of luck!
