Every Single Damn Thing You Need To Know About Thursday's First Round NCAA Tournament Games

Folks it's getting closer. We're barely hours away. We made it. It's March. It's the NCAA Tournament. We have the Barstool Sportsbook live in a handful of states and there's no better time to download it than this month. What I plan on doing on the blog each day is this preview. Everything you need to know. Schedule, storylines, picks, if you want something different let me know and I'll adjust. It's March. It's all about adjustments in order to survive and advance. Let's get into it. 

Schedule

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Bracket

It's still clean. 

5 Best Games Today

Michigan/Colorado State, Providence/South Dakota State, Vermont/Arkansas, Indiana/Saint Mary's, San Francisco/Murray State

Five Storylines/Game Previews

1. Tennessee potential let down spot? - I mentioned it before, but Tennessee (and a bunch of other tournament champs) are prime for a let down spot. Longwood is fine playing a game in the mud. But will it be muddy enough where we look at up at the under-8 and Longwood is up 5 or something like that. 

2. Will DeVante' Jones play? -

Sure doesn't sound like it. That's a big loss for Michigan if so even with Colorado State having a bunch of travel problems to get to Indy. Jones is someone who can chase around Isaiah Stevens, CSU's 2nd leading scorer. Now you may have to move Eli Brooks over a spot and rotations just get a little bit off. 

3. What version of UNC do we get? 

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Marquette/UNC is a prime 8/9 game. It's just a peak 8/9 game. The fact is we've seen UNC look like a top-25 team in the country - when they won at Duke. But we've seen them look like an NIT team at best a bunch too. Marquette's weird style could throw them off and Marquette does have bodies to throw at Bacot. UNC is going to be an enigma for people in this tournament. 

4. No LJ Cryer for Baylor - It shouldn't matter for this game, BUT I'm gonna be paying attention to Baylor's rotations and who seems to keep taking over for Cryer now in a Tournament setting. I know Cryer has been hurt and this isn't the first time he's missed a game or anything. But we're now in the Tournament. Shit, Baylor lost its first Big 12 Tournament game. Life is different now that a season can end. 

5. Will any of the popular bracket upset picks happen - We have a lot of the sexy picks tomorrow. Vermont, Michigan, South Dakota State and Indiana are probably the 4 most popular bracket upset picks. I say it that way because Michigan is giving CSU points. Very rarely does it work out where that happens. The last time I truly remember it working out perfectly was Middle Tennessee State as a 12 over Minnesota who was dealing with injuries. 

Picks

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Colorado State +2

Providence -2

Longwood +18

Akron +13.5

Georgia State +23.5

Murray State -2

Boise State +3