North Carolina will open its 51st NCAA Tournament appearance Friday as the No. 8 seed in the South Region versus No. 9 seed Wisconsin at Purdue’s Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, IN.

The Tar Heels have won four of their last six games with the losses by two points at Syracuse and by three to Florida State in the ACC Tournament semifinals. Carolina comes in at 18-10 overall and went 10-6 in the ACC.

The Badgers have lost five of their last seven games with the lone wins coming over Nebraska ad Northwestern. Wisconsin is 17-12 overall and went 10-10 in the Big Ten, but seven of those victories were versus teams with overall losing records.

The game will tip at 7:10 pm.

Here are our picks: