Kansas Jayhawks vs North Carolina Tar Heels Point Spread Picks

Kansas caught fire at the end of the regular season and breezed through the Big 12 tournament, winning and covering all three games and then winning five more in a row in the NCAA Tournament to get to tonight's championship game. The Jayhawks have held opponents to just a .350 field goal percentage in the tournament, best of all the original 68 teams, and they dominated two very good teams in Miami and Villanova when their speed and athleticism was too much to overcome. Kansas shot 51.8 percent its last two games while holding the opposition to 38.6 percent. This is also a pseudo-revenge game for the Jayhawks, who were ranked No. 1 in 2020, but there was no tournament due to the pandemic. If there was ever a time for a team to be in a letdown situation going into the final it would be North Carolina, which pulled off one of its biggest wins ever in ousting Duke in Mike Krzyzewski's final year. The Tarheels will have to ramp it up again against another great team, and dating back to last season, they are just 2-10 ATS on the road vs. great offensive teams like Kansas who average more than 76 points per game). The Jayhawks have covered seven of their last nine games and they hold opponents to 30.1 percent from 3-point range. Take Kansas.

A young North Carolina squad is getting better and getting hot at the right time, on a 9-2 SU, 8-3 ATS run. The Tar Heels are No. 14 nationally in scoring with a balanced offensive attack behind sophomore guard P.J. Hairston (14.5 ppg), sophomore forward James Michael McAdoo (14.5 points) and junior forward Reggie Bullock (14.2 ppg). They have the offense to hang with mighty Kansas and have revenge on their minds for Coach Roy Williams. Kansas is the team that ended their 2012 run with a 80-67 victory in the Midwest Regional final – the second straight year the Tar Heels have fallen just short of the Final Four. The Tar Heels are 14-6 ATS in their last 20 NCAA Tournament games. Kansas was pushed hard by Western Kentucky before surviving 64-57 as 20-point chalk. Western Kentucky led 31-30 at halftime and was still within four points with 28 seconds remaining. Grab the dog in what shapes up as a close, even game. Play North Carolina.

If you like offense, this will be a fun game as both teams love to run.  Kansas averages 75 ppg and is 14th in the nation in field goal shooting (.485%) led by 6-10 Thomas Robinson and senior guard Tyshawn Taylor.  They've had to slow the pace down against NC State, Detroit and Purdue the last three games, but UNC likes to run and the OVER is 4-1 in the Jayhawks last five NCAA Tournament games as a favorite of 0.5-6.5. North Carolina is all about running and attacking opponents with their depth, and are No. 2 in the nation in points (82 ppg) and fourth in assists. The OVER is 5-2 in the Tar Heels last seven games following a straight up win and I see both teams running all game long. Play Kansas/North Carolina OVER the total.