3 Bold Predictions for UNC vs. Alabama in Sweet 16

2. North Carolina Scores +100 Points in a Double-Digit Win

The Tar Heels are only 3.5-point favorites as of this writing, but the Crimson Tide have notoriously struggled as underdogs against high-octane offenses.

Alabama is 1-9 straight-up and 2-8 against the spread in their last 10 games as underdogs, failing to cover the spread in four straight. They lost 105-87 to Florida earlier this month, 117-95 to Kentucky and 99-81 to Auburn in February, and 91-71 to Tennessee in late January.

That's four-straight double-digit losses with all four opponents dropping at least 90 points as the Crimson Tide failed to cover the spread by an average of over 15 points per game. That plays right into the Tar Heels hands and I expect an offensive onslaught from UNC.

With Alabama's aforementioned terrible interior defense, Armando Bacot should have no problem scoring and dominating the paint. The Crimson Tide are 225th in defensive rebounding percentage (69.8%), giving Bacot and Harrison Ingram plenty of chances to crash the boards and generate additional scoring opportunities.

Mark Sears (21.5 PPG) will do his best to keep Alabama in the game, but the Tide lack the defensive intensity to slow North Carolina down. Even if 'Bama gets out to an early lead, the Tar Heels proved they can withstand an early blow and win going away.

This will be UNC's coming out party and you'll see a number of pundits picking them to win it all by this time next week.