The Auburn Tigers and North Carolina Tar Heels meet Friday in the Sweet 16 of the college basketball NCAA Tournament at the Sprint Center. The Auburn Tigers look to advance to their first Elite Eight since 1986 after beating New Mexico State and Kansas to get to this point. The Auburn Tigers are averaging 79.1 points on 45 percent shooting and allowing 69 points on 44.1 percent shooting. Bryce Brown is averaging 15.9 points and two rebounds while Jared Harper is averaging 15.3 points and 5.7 assists. Chuma Okeke is the third double-digit scorer and Austin Wiley is grabbing 4.2 rebounds. The Auburn Tigers are shooting 38.2 percent from beyond the arc and 71.6 percent from the free throw line. The Auburn Tigers are allowing 35.3 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 30.3 rebounds per game. The Auburn Tigers have won their last eight non-home games. The North Carolina Tar Heels look for their 10th Elite Eight appearance since 2000 after beating Iona and Washington in the first two rounds. The North Carolina Tar Heels are averaging 86 points on 46.5 percent shooting and allowing 72.5 points on 41.2 percent shooting. Cameron Johnson is averaging 17.1 points and 5.9 rebounds while Coby White is averaging 16.1 points and 4.2 assists. Luke Maye is the third double-digit scorer and Nassir Little is grabbing 4.6 rebounds. The North Carolina Tar Heels are shooting 36.5 percent from beyond the arc and 74.2 percent from the free throw line. The North Carolina Tar Heels are allowing 33 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 40.5 rebounds per game. The North Carolina Tar Heels have won 12 of their last 13 non-home games. The Tigers are 1-4 ATS in their last 5 vs. Atlantic Coast, 2-6 ATS in their last 8 non-conference games and 6-2 ATS in their last 8 games overall. The Tar Heels are 20-8-2 ATS in their last 30 vs. Southeastern, 4-1 ATS in their last 5 Friday games and 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games overall. The under is 5-1 in Tar Heels last 6 overall. The over is 5-2 in Tigers last 7 overall. The Auburn Tigers come into this game hot, which includes shooting 40.2 percent shooting from deep in their last five games, but you have to question the balance of this team. Auburn has gotten this far because of its three-point shooting, but what happens when the shots aren't falling? What happens when a team actually defends past half court and forces tough shots? Auburn must prove it can win other ways or this run won't continue for much longer. The North Carolina Tar Heels are the most balanced team in the tournament and are getting after it on both ends, which includes winning their last five games by an average of 11.6 points. Nassir Little is also playing at a very high level off the bench, making these Tar Heels nearly unbeatable if it continues. I'm going to lay the reasonable chalk with the Tar Heels, as a team this one dimensional won't be able to play with this UNC club for 40 minutes. Randy’s Pick North Carolina -5.5 The pick in this article is the opinion of the writer, not a Sports Chat Place site consensus.<doc-sep>First-year guard Coby White (2) shoots a three-pointer against Louisville in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament on Thursday, March 14, 2019 at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C. UNC defeated Louisville 83-70 to advance to the semifinals. KANSAS CITY, Mo. — At halftime, No. 1 seed North Carolina trails No. 5 seed Auburn, 41-39, as neither team could find much of a scoring advantage through 20 minutes. Things were close from the beginning. After UNC led 5-2 early, neither team could separate itself from the other for much of the first half. Both the Tar Heels and Tigers ran the floor at break-neck speed, scoring 14 combined points before even two minutes of gametime had passed. Even still, head coach Roy Williams motioned for his team to run the floor faster on multiple occasions, looking for a chance to take command over the game. Despite times when both teams played well and went on scoring runs, UNC and Auburn were all tied at 26-26 with seven minutes left the half. A big 3-pointer by Kenny Williams put the Tar Heels up by three with 6:37 left before the break before the Tigers brought things close again. Neither team led by five points in the half. For Auburn, Chuma Okeke led the way, scoring 12 first-half points on 5-for-7 shooting, including two 3-pointers to pace the Tigers, along with seven rebounds. In light blue, Coby White led the Tar Heels with nine points, while Kenny Williams had eight and Luke Maye scored seven. With one more half to play, UNC is looking to capture its 14th 30-win season in the second half. Meanwhile, the Tigers are in striking distance of improving their March record to 10-0, while moving on to only their second Elite Eight in program history. @_jackfrederick @DTHSports | sports@dailytarheel.com<doc-sep>KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- North Carolina coach Roy Williams said Nassir Little's availability would be a game-time decision for Friday's Sweet 16 Midwest Regional matchup against Auburn after the freshman forward experienced flu-like symptoms. Williams wasn't optimistic that Little would be able to play against the Tigers. "I can say it's hard to make a 180-degree turn because there's no way in the world he could play if we were playing today," Williams said Thursday. "He didn't feel good last night. He was running a little bit of a temperature, running more of a temperature this morning. He didn't feel like eating. I didn't even bring him over here to the arena with us. ... He's sitting there [at breakfast on Thursday] and he has his plate in front of him, and it looked to me like it was hard to pick up that fork, and the last time I looked it wasn't very heavy." Little did not practice Wednesday or Thursday. Tournament Challenge 2019 How's your bracket? Check out Tournament Challenge for live updates with a chance to win $10,000 in Amazon.com gift cards and a trip for two to the 2019 Maui Jim Maui Invitational! Little was North Carolina's top reserve and fourth-leading scorer in the regular season, when he averaged 10 points. He is the Tar Heels' leading scorer through their two NCAA tournament games, averaging 19.5 points. "Last weekend he was sensational," Williams said. "If he's going to play like that all the time, we're going to miss that greatly because we don't have anybody who can do those things that he did." Little's absence would likely mean more minutes for junior Brandon Robinson, who is averaging 3.2 points. "[Little] is just someone who can come off the bench and give you 15, 20 minutes and he'll be a factor," senior guard Kenny Williams said. "But if he's not there, it's nothing we're not used to. We're used to guys not being able to play. So somebody will step up. It's only a matter of who."<doc-sep>
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH - MARCH 23: Jared Harper #1 of the Auburn Tigers reacts to a play against the Kansas Jayhawks during their game in the Second Round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament at Vivint Smart Home Arena on March 23, 2019 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) UNC and Auburn together could create one of the highest scoring games in the Sweet 16. Which team will survive the possible shootout to keep their season alive? TV schedule: Friday, March 29, 7:29 pm ET. TBS Arena: Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri While Duke and Virginia were the ACC teams viewed as most likely to win a national championship, UNC (29-6) has emerged as a legit threat themselves to win it all. The top-seeded Tar Heels struggled a bit versus Iona before pulling away, before handling Washington in the Round of 32. Luke Maye had a huge game with 20 points and 14 rebounds, with freshman Nassir Little scoring 20 also off the bench. Fellow freshman Coby White had 17 on 4/7 from three-point range, while Cam Johnson contributed with 13 points and seven assists. UNC is third in the country in team scoring with 86 ppg and has one of the fastest paced offenses. There are few teams who can keep up with UNC. One of them may be Auburn (28-9), coming off of an outstanding offensive performance against Kansas in the last round. They beat the Jayhawks 89-75 after scoring 51 first-half points. Point guard Jared Harper had 18 points and six assists while Bryce Brown had seven of the Tigers’ 13 made three-pointers in route to putting up a game-high 25. Dating back to their SEC Tournament title run, Auburn has looked like the preseason top-10 team that was viewed as a legit Final Four contender. Both teams like to play up-tempo and launch a lot of threes. That does play into the Tar Heels’ hands a bit but that’s also how the Tigers play at their best. So don’t expect the game to be slowed down. The key will be how effective Maye is against Auburn’s frontcourt who has plenty of bodies to throw at him. If he has an effective game, the odds are great that UNC moves on. However, the Tigers are suited to pull off the upset. If a Sweet 16 upset is to occur, it’ll be involving a high scoring offense that goes off. Prediction: North Carolina 87 – Auburn 91