ESPN Computer Predicts Winners Of Wednesday's NCAA Tournament Games
03/19/2025 09:36 AM
The NCAA Tournament continues today with the second set of First Four games from Dayton.
The 2025 Big Dance started with a bang on Tuesday, with 16th-seeded Alabama State beating St. Francis (Pa.) on a Hail Mary pass and layup in the final seconds. In the second game of the night, No. 11 seed North Carolina made a statement to anyone who felt they should have been excluded from the tournament, thrashing San Diego State 95-68.
"As soon as we saw Sunday evening that we were the 11th seed in Dayton, we knew it was go time," UNC guard Seth Trimble said. "So we dropped it right away. We were able to drop our nerves and jitters and able to play a good game as a team."
Alabama State now moves on to face Auburn, the No. 1 overall seed in the bracket, while North Carolina will meet sixth-seeded Ole Miss.
Tonight, Mount St. Mary's and American will meet in another matchup between 16-seeds. Afterwards, 11th-seeded Xavier and Texas will duke it out in the nightcap.
ESPN Analytics has unveiled its projections for tonight's games. In the opener. the computer favors American, giving the Eagles a 53.4% chance of winning.
Lastly, the metrics think Texas has a 53.7% chance of beating Xavier. Basically, the analytics say to anticipate two close games.
American and Mount St. Mary's will tip off at 6:40 p.m. ET, followed by Xavier and Texas at approximately 9:10 p.m. ET. Both games will be on truTV, with the winners facing Duke and Illinois, respectively.
The first round of the NCAA Tournament gets underway Thursday afternoon at 12:15 p.m. ET, running all through the night and then resuming on Friday at the same time.
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