NCAA Tournament Scores 2012: Predicting the Highest-Scoring Sweet 16 Games

After taking a couple days off to let the smoke clear (and there was a lot of smoke to be cleared), the NCAA tournament shall resume later on Thursday.

There are some pretty good matchups on the Sweet 16 slate. And thanks to the various carnage that ensued in the first three rounds, there are some pretty weird ones too. I for one didn't think that Ohio would live to see the day that it would be matched up against North Carolina. Not this year, anyway.

At any rate, the matchups I'm looking forward to are the ones that promise to be high-scoring affairs. There are a couple games like that to look forward to in these next two days. For kicks, I'm going to go ahead and discuss them in depth.

No. 6 Cincinnati vs. No. 2 Ohio State

The Buckeyes finished 35th in the nation in scoring during the regular season, and they have a few players in Jared Sullinger, Deshaun Thomas and William Buford who are very good at putting the ball in the basket.

Cincinnati wasn't quite as strong offensively, but one thing the Bearcats can do offensively is shoot the three. They made more threes than any team in the Big East this season, though they haven't gotten hot from distance yet in the Big Dance.

What we know about Cincinnati is that three of its top four scorers are guards, and that the three of them will spend a lot of time out on the court together. That will spell trouble on defense for the Bearcats against the likes of Sullinger and Thomas, but the Bearcats will have a legit shot at an upset if they make an effort to simply outrun and outscore the Buckeyes.

If Cincinnati gets hot and starts lighting up the scoreboard, you can rest assured Ohio State won't be left behind. The Buckeyes have enough scoring punch to match up with anybody on a good day.

No. 10 Xavier vs. No. 3 Baylor

The Musketeers have looked pretty sharp to this point in the tournament, overcoming Notre Dame's tough defense and then easily handling a Lehigh squad that was fresh off a victory over Duke.

The Bears have also looked pretty good, and they've gotten a huge lift from Brady Heslip to help get them to the Sweet 16. Heslip has knocked down 14 threes already in the tournament.

Xavier gets by primarily on the strength of its backcourt. Baylor gets by primarily by the strength of its frontcourt. That makes this a very interesting matchup, as these two teams will use entirely different strategies to get the ball in the basket.

The Bears are going to score plenty of points as long as their bigs don't settle for jump shots, leaving Xavier to keep up with them. The Musketeers will try to do this by upping the tempo of the game, taking full advantage of the skill of their guards in transition.

If both teams are clicking, we'll be in for a game in which both teams score over 70 points.

No. 4 Indiana vs. No. 1 Kentucky

When these two teams met back in December, they combined to score 145 points, and the game was won by a buzzer-beating three from Christian Watford. 

It was a beauty, in case you happened to miss it.

We know from that game that the Hoosiers can score on Kentucky's outstanding defense, and that's thanks primarily to Indiana's ability to knock down threes. The Hoosiers were one of the top three-point shooting teams in the country during the regular season, and their three-point shooting prowess is something that will allow them to stay on the perimeter away from Anthony Davis.

Indiana will score points against Kentucky, but don't expect Indiana to put the clamps on the Wildcats when it's their turn to be on defense. The Wildcats won't have too much trouble collecting buckets around the basket.

In the end, I'll be surprised if these two teams fail to combine for over 140 points again.

No. 7 Florida vs. No. 3 Marquette

This is going to be a very fun game to watch.

The Golden Eagles are one of the most explosive offensive teams in the country, as they love to push the ball in transition and they have two outstanding threats in Jae Crowder and Darius Johnson-Odom. They averaged roughly 76 points per game in the regular season, and we saw them score 88 in the Round of 64 against BYU.

Florida is pretty explosive in its own right, as the Gators will also look to get out in transition and speed up the court for easy baskets. What makes the Gators even more dangerous is their wealth of three-point shooters.

What bodes well for those of us who love high-scoring games (hullo!) is the fact that neither Marquette nor Florida excels on defense. This one is going to be a barnburner.