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Oklahoma will try to avoid another first-round upset when the second-seeded Sooners open against No. 15 Cal State Bakersfield. Two years ago OU dropped its opener to No. 12 North Dakota State, but rebounded to make the Sweet 16 in 2015.... 

Holy Cross is quite the Cinderella story. The Crusaders entered the Patriot League tournament as the No. 9 seed, then beat four higher-seeded teams to win the league title and earn their spot in the field of 68. Despite their win Wednesday in the First Four, the odds are stacked against them. HCU would have to reach the national title game just to finish the season above .500.... 

Stunned. That was the feeling around college basketball when Virginia got the No. 1 seed in this bracket instead of Michigan St. Now the Spartans have a chip on their shoulder and will be looking to prove they should have been the top seed. The first team in their path to a potential Elite Eight matchup with UVA will be the Middle Tennessee St Blue Raiders.... 

The Florida Gulf Coast Eagles were horribly under-seeded by the Selection Committee. They were clearly improperly forced to go to Dayton for the First Four, and they probably should've been on the No. 15 line for the second time in their history. Many will remember the magic they pulled two years ago when they made the Sweet 16 as a 15, and many will also recall just how good they looked against Fairleigh Dickinson on Tuesday night, but this game against the North Carolina Tar Heels is a complet... 

Iowa limps into the Big Dance losers of six of its last eight games. They were ousted from the Big Ten tournament by 5-13 Illinois in the first round, an unceremonious exit for a team that spent several weeks in the top-10.... 

Bigger things than a 5-seed were expected from Maryland when the season began. But the young Terps stumbled down the stretch, losing five of their final eight games. Except for a meltdown at Minnesota, none of the losses look bad, but there’s no doubt that this team is not playing its best basketball entering the NCAA Tournament.... 

Hawai’i isn’t just in the NCAA Tournament as a feel-good story from a one-bid conference. Its 27-5 record and No. 61 KenPom ranking are no flukes. The Warriors are a mere 7-point underdog against a Cal team that has as much talent as any team in the country. Vegas knows Hawai’i is dangerous.... 

Villanova has not advanced out of the opening weekend since 2009 and is 3-5 – with three losses as a 1 or 2 seed. Here come the Wildcats again as a 2 seed in the South with an uneasy history making them a shaky Final Four pick. Will this year’s team face added pressure or use recent failures as motivation?... 

Baylor was among the best teams in the best conference this season and hopes the high level of competition puts it in a position to succeed. The fifth-seeded Bears are coming off a 70-66 loss to No. 1 Kansas in the Big 12 tournament semis and have lost three of their last four games – all against ranked foes.... 

Just a couple years removed from a run to the Elite Eight, the Flyers are back in the Big Dance for the third straight season. In 2014, they matched up with Syracuse and beat the Orange 55-53. They were a significant underdog in that game, but have the odds slightly in their favor this time around.... 

The Fresno State Bulldogs are heating up at the right time of the year, having won nine straight and knocking off San Diego State to win the Mountain West and a berth into the NCAA Tournament. Now they face their toughest test yet when they play the Pac-12 runner-up, the Utah Utes.... 

Technically this is Duke’s defense of its 2015 NCAA Tournament title, but the two teams are completely different. The Blue Devils have won their region 16 times, but they’ve never won a West Regional in the five times being placed there. They begin defense of their title as the West’s No. 4 seed against in-state counterpart UNC Wilmington.... 

UConn was dead and buried against Cincinnati in the first round of the AAC tournament, literally 0.8 seconds away from the NIT. But a program-defining Hail Mary saved the Huskies season and propelled them to the tournament title. Colorado flew under the radar as one of the top teams in a very tough Pac-12.... 

Texas Tech made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007 on the strength of some huge wins in Big 12 play. Now the Red Raiders will try to win their first game in the tournament since Bob Knight was coach when they face the Butler Bulldogs.... 

Miami had a great season and was in contention for the regular season ACC crown right up until the final weekend of the season. The Hurricanes are 8-3 against this year’s field, with losses coming to Virginia twice and North Carolina, both of which earned No. 1 seeds in the Tournament.... 

Not satisfied with the Big 12 regular season and tournament championship, the Kansas Jayhawks are looking at the bigger picture. The team is focused, riding a 14-game winning streak into the NCAA Tournament, and will look to buck a trend of early exits when they take on No. 16 Austin Peay in Thursday’s first round.... 

The Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans actually have one of the best records in America, but many are going to call into question their quality of opponent in the Sun Belt this year. The Purdue Boilermakers made it all the way to the Big Ten Tournament Final, and they played as good of a game against Michigan State when they got there as anyone else has in recent weeks.That's why many believe this game is a romp waiting to happen in the Midwest Region.... 

It’s been more than a decade since these two teams last met, with the Commodores topping the Shockers 65-63 in a March Madness showdown. This time around, they’re playing for the honor of taking on No. 6 Arizona. Each lost in their conference finals, but strong winning streaks prior to that help make this one of the more intriguing First four tussles in recent history.... 

Sixty-eight teams will begin warfare for the right to be called National Champions on Tuesday night, and it all gets started with the first of the First Four games between the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights and the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles.... 

Mark Few's Gonzaga Bulldogs have been the hunted team in the West Coast Conference for years, and they've often been favored in their NCAA Tournament early round games in the process. They took on the role of the hunters in the WCC Tournament this year, ultimately getting the job done against St. Mary's to secure a bid to the dance in the only way possible.... 

With a showdown against No. 6 Notre Dame on the line, the Wolverines look to leverage their 51-24 NCAA Tournament record as they face a Tulsa team that they match up favorably against.... 

The Virginia Cavaliers are one of the biggest favorites in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. They're being asked to lay over three touchdowns against the MEAC champion Hampton Pirates in the 1/16 game in the Midwest Region.... 

The Holy Cross Crusaders have what might be the story of the NCAA Tournament to tell. They were just 10-19 coming into the Patriot League Tournament, and they went just 5-13 in the regular season in conference play. However, they ran the table the hard way, winning four legitimate road games, three of which came as at least nine-point underdogs to clinch a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Can they get to the main bracket?... 

The semifinals of the ACC Tournament might provide two of the best matchups we're going to see before the brackets are released and the NCAA Tournament begins. The Virginia Cavaliers are still hanging onto hope to get a No. 1 seed in the dance, and if they can beat the Miami Hurricanes on Friday night to reach the ACC Tournament Final, they've got a really good gripe to do just that even if they don't win on Saturday.... 

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish had to go on a 14-0 run against Duke to storm back for a victory in overtime in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament on Thursday. Is there anything left in the tank to take on the North Carolina Tar Heels on Friday in the semis?...