— Seven of the last nine years, a #1-seed won the national title.
Exceptions: Villanova (2016), UConn (2023)
— Last five years, #1-seeds are 11-9 ATS in the first round.
Last three years, #2-seeds are 8-4 ATS in the first round.
Last six years, #3-seeds are 16-8 ATS in the first round.
Last three years, #2-seeds are 8-4 ATS in the first round.
— Texas-NC State is a play-in game Tuesday.
November 26, Texas beat the Wolfpack 102-97 in Maui Classic.
Longhorns shot 16-32 on the arc in that game, scored 1.42 ppp
Wolfpack is 2-7 in its last nine games; little surprised they made the tournament.
Sean Miller is the Texas coach; his brother Archie played for NC State.
— Big East didn’t get much respect; three teams in the NCAA’s, with St John’s a #5-seed, and Villanova a #8-seed. Vllanova is a slight underdog against Utah State.
— Speaking of Utah State, this is the first time since 2017 the Mountain West only got one team in the NCAA’s, and they had the #6 league in the country this year.
— Miami OH had a 31-0 regular season, then lost in the first round of the MAC tournament. Redhawks got into the tournament; they’re a 7.5-point underdog to SMU in Wednesday’s main play-in game.
— LIU won the Northeast Conference; they’re a #16-seed that is playing Arizona. This is the first time since 2012 that the NEC champ hasn’t had to play in a play-in game.
— Miami FL can’t be real happy; they’ve had a very good season, are a #7-seed, but they got sent to St Louis, where they’ll play…….Missouri in the first round. No bueno.
— BYU has to play in a Thursday/Saturday bracket; BYU’s teams aren’t allowed to play on Sundays.
— All four #4-seeds are a double digit favorite in their first round games; the last time that happened was 1994.
— Since 2002, these are the times a #15-seed upset a #2-seed:
2012- Lehigh (+12) beat Duke 75-70
Norfolk State (+21) beat Missouri 86-84
2013- Florida Gulf Coast (+13) beat Georgetown 78-68
2016- Middle Tennessee (+18) beat Michigan State 90-81
2021- Oral Roberts (+16) beat Ohio State 75-72 in OT
2022- Saint Peter’s (+18) beat Kentucky 85-79 in OT
2023- Princeton (+16) beat Arizona 59-55
23 years, that’s 7 wins, 85 losses for the #15-seeds.
Those seven teams went 4-3 SU/ATS in their second round games.
— Last eight years, only two #14-seeds have upset a #3-seed:
2021- Abilene Christian (+8.5) 53, Texas 52
2024- Oakland (+12.5) 80, Kentucky 76
— Last three years, favorites are 7-2 ATS in Final Four games.
