The road to Louisville is here, as fans have waited anxiously for three months to witness the start of an electric postseason. With the field of 48 announced on Monday, there's much to dissect for NCAA's Maria Howell and Andrew McDevitt now that the chips are set and teams are ready to make their move.
➡️ BRACKET: Printable and interactive
A common theme throughout Wednesday’s conversation was parity, with not a single-seeded undefeated team in this year’s tournament and SIU-Edwardsville being the only undefeated team in the entire field.
“The main thing with this tournament is to be surprised. The top teams all seem reachable,” Howell said, referencing Marshall and West Virginia’s two regular season losses after at some point being ranked No. 1 in polls throughout the season.
Upset picks
Among the upset picks by Maria Howell and Andrew McDevitt, Maria has SIU-Edwardsville upsetting Memphis, while Andrew predicted Big South Champion High Point, to upset Charlotte in the first round.
Fun future matchups
Clemson vs. Syracuse (third round), Duke vs. Virginia (third round): A pair of potential third-round matchups were deemed the most exciting possible future matchups with Duke vs. Virginia setting up a rematch of a regular season game played on September 8th in Durham, in which Duke defeated UVA, 2-0.
“The thing about Duke with those massive strikers up top in (Ulfer) Bjornsson, (Forster) Ajago is that they can strike from anywhere at any point,” McDevitt said. "The lower right quadrant of the bracket has potential for an all-ACC third round."
To hear more takeaways from both Andrew and Maria, you can watch their stream above.
Below you will find the full schedule of the first and second rounds.
Thursday, Nov. 16 | First round
Green Bay at Western Michigan | 1 p.m.
LIU at Denver | 5 p.m.
Yale at Bryant | 6 p.m.
Lipscomb at Indiana | 6 p.m.
Boston U. at Syracuse | 6 p.m.
Rider at Vermont | 6 p.m.
High Point at Charlotte | 7 p.m.
Mercer at Florida International | 7 p.m.
Dayton at Louisville | 7 p.m.
James Madison at Pittsburgh | 7 p.m.
Kentucky at Xavier | 7 p.m.
Omaha at Missouri State | 7:30 p.m.
SIUE at Memphis | 8 p.m.
Seattle U at Oregon State | 9 p.m.
UC Irvine at Loyola Marymount (CA) | 10 p.m.
Cal Baptist at San Diego | 10 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 19 | Second round
Pitt/James Madison at No. 4 Georgetown | Noon
San Diego/Cal Baptist at No. 1 Marshall | 1 p.m.
FIU/Mercer at No. 7 Virginia | 1 p.m.
Western Michigan/Green Bay at No. 15 Duke | 1 p.m.
Louisville/Dayton at No. 5 West Virginia | 2 p.m.
Syracuse/Boston U. at No. 8 New Hampshire | 2 p.m.
Xavier/Kentucky at No. 2 Notre Dame | 5 p.m.
Memphis/SIUE at No. 3 North Carolina | 5 p.m.
Indiana/Lipscomb at No. 10 Wake Forest | 6 p.m.
Vermont/Rider at No. 12 UCF | 6 p.m.
Bryant/Yale at No. 14 Hofstra | 6 p.m.
Charlotte/High Point at No. 9 Clemson | 6:30 p.m.
Denver/LIU at No. 6 SMU | 8 p.m.
Oregon State/Seattle U at No. 11 Portland | 8 p.m.
LMU (CA)/UC Irvine at No. 13 UCLA | 8 p.m.
Missouri State/Omaha at No. 16 Stanford | 8 p.m.
