It's 2 hours till Notre Dame tips off with Princeton (you wouldn't want the Ivy Leaguers to sit and wait, would you? -- I've posted all the game times and TV stations below) so your brackets had better be ready.
Here are some of what seems to be consensus points:
- There are no great teams this year, rather like last year. Thus, we have no consensus choice. Vegas, in a rather odd move, has chosen #2 seed Duke as the betting favorite, while fivethirtyeight (Nate Silver started as a sports stat geek) has defending champ Villanova as slight favorites over Gonzaga (both 1 seeds). Many experts have picked UCLA, a 3 seed who scores a lot, and several, including former President Obama, have a rematch of North Carolina and Duke in the final. It's been hypothesized that ANY 1 or 2 or UCLA could win.
- There are several strange games in the first round, and rather strange favorites. 12 seed Middle Tennessee State, who beat Michigan St in the opening round last year as a 15 seed, is favored, in a game I'll see live, over 5 seed Minnesota. Crazy talk. Minnesota lost a starter in their last game last Saturday, but still...
- Wichita St, who everyone thinks is underseeded at 10, is a 6 point favorite over annual darling Dayton, the 7 seed! say what?!
- Today's hot upset games start right off -- some have concerns about Notre Dame and the Ivy Tigers, some wonder if Virginia, an infamous 5 seed (one almost always loses), can score with UNC Wilmington in the next game, and then it is Butler, a 4 seed, against Winthrop, an experienced 13. And the Middle Tennessee game is at 4 ET.
- At 430 on TBS, Northwestern plays its first ever NCAA tournament game against Vanderbilt, in the second SAT Bowl of the day. It's an 8-9 game and those are usually hard to pick and worth watching. Silver gives Vandy 55% chance to move on.
- If you've not filled out your bracket, or nailed it down, remember some tidbits --
- All the one seeds have made it to the final 4 only once;
- A one seed wins the tournament over half the time;
- An average of 1.25 one seeds has made the final 4 the last few years (that's down);
- The averaging seeding of final 4s is 10.9 -- so I heard someone go SMU (6), NC (1), KS (1), AZ (2) yesterday, which matches it. But, remember, that's a stat, not a rule.
- For several years, one team that won a play in (errr first four) game went on to win the next game -- that means Kansas St or USC (who won an amazing game last night).
- No 3 seed has ever won.
Here are the games and TV. times are ET. (second games times are approx)
Notre Dame (5) v Princeton, 1215 CBS
UVA (5) v UNC W 1240 truTV (hope you have it)
Butler (4) v Winthrop 130 TNT
Gonzaga (1) v So Dak St 2 TBS
West Va (4) v Bucknell 245 CBS
FL (4) v E. Tennessee St 310 truTV
Min (5) v Middle Tennessee St 4 TNT
NW (8) v Vandy 430 TBS
MD (6) v Xavier 650 TNT
Villanova (1) v Mount St Mary's 720 TBS
Purdue (4) v Vermont 727 truTV
Fl st (3) v Fl Gulf Coast 920 TNT
Wisc (8) v Va Tech 940 CBS
AZ (2) v N Dakota 950 TBS
Iowa St (5) v Nev 957 truTV (Ill be there)
