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The NCAA Tournament gets going Thursday night in Buffalo with a really interesting 8-9 matchup in the Midwest Region. Saint Louis draws Georgia at KeyBank Center, with tipoff set for 9:45 PM ET on CBS. Saint Louis comes in as the No. 9 seed after a 28-5 season and an Atlantic 10 title push that ended with a one-point loss to Dayton in the conference semifinals. Georgia is the No. 8 seed at 22-10, fresh off an SEC Tournament loss to Ole Miss, and the Bulldogs opened as a small favorite at -2.5 with a massive total of 169.5. This is one of those first-round games that feels priced around style as much as team quality. Saint Louis can score

The Penn Quakers and Illinois Fighting Illini meet in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina. Tipoff is set for 9:25 PM ET on TNT. Penn comes in as the No. 14 seed at 18-11 after winning the Ivy League tournament, while Illinois enters as the No. 3 seed at 24-8 and still sitting inside the top 15 nationally. The setup is simple enough. Penn wants to turn this into a shot-making game. Illinois wants to make the talent, size, and pace control show up right away. Penn has real momentum after its overtime win over Yale, and TJ Power’s 44-point explosion obviously jumps off the page. Illinois,

The Milwaukee Bucks head to the Delta Center on Thursday night for a regular season matchup with the Utah Jazz, with tip-off set for 9:00 PM. Milwaukee comes in at 28-40, sitting 11th in the Eastern Conference and 3rd in the Central Division, while Utah is 20-49 and buried near the bottom of the Western Conference standings in 14th place. On paper, this is not a marquee game. From a betting angle, though, it is pretty interesting because the number is short enough to make you think twice. Milwaukee is listed as a 4.5-point road favorite, with the Bucks at -192 on the moneyline and the Jazz at +160. The total is 229.5, which feels fair at first glance but

The NCAA Tournament opens Thursday night with Kennesaw State drawing one of the tougher first-round assignments on the board. The 14-seed Owls, 21-13 overall after a strong Conference USA tournament run, meet No. 3 seed Gonzaga at the Moda Center in Portland, with tip set for 10:00 PM ET on TBS. Gonzaga enters at 30-3, ranked No. 12 in the AP poll, and carrying the profile of a team that expects to play deep into March. This is a fascinating betting matchup because the market is asking whether Kennesaw State can stay close enough with its pace, aggression, and foul pressure, or whether Gonzaga’s efficiency eventually turns this into a runaway. The Bulldogs opened as a big favorite at -20.5,