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The second round of the NCAA Tournament gets started on Saturday with the one seed Baylor looking to hold off a blue blood in North Carolina that enters on the heels of their biggest margin of victory this season, a 32 point win against Marquette on Thursday.
North Carolina Tar Heels vs Baylor Bears (-5.5, 149)
Despite dealing with injuries to LJ Cryer and Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua, Baylor has allowed 70 points or fewer in six of their last seven games and are 12th in the country in points scored on a per possession basis.
North Carolina is 238th in the country in opponent 3-point shooting percentage, allowing opponents to make 37.5% of their shots in a road or neutral court environment while Baylor is 18th in opponent 3-point shooting percentage.
While Baylor has not been the flamethrower North Carolina has on offense, the team has scored at least 72 points in seven of their last 10 games while North Carolina has scored 70 points or fewer in five of their last nine contests.
Baylor forces a turnover on 23.2% of their possessions on defense away from home, which is fifth in the country while North Carolina’s 12.2% turnovers forced per possession away from home is 355th.
With North Carolina’s inability to generate turnovers, Baylor should get plenty of clean possessions to take advantage of a shaky Tar Heels defense and utilize their own defense for a comfortable trip to the Sweet 16.
The Play: Baylor -5.5
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