NCAA Tournament round of 64 Thursday betting preview

March Madness really begins around the NCAA Tournament on Thursday with the first 16 games of the Round of 64. And two of the four top seeds will be in action: Villanova and Kansas. Of course, a No. 1 seed has never lost to a No. 16 and just four of the past 80 No. 1 vs. 16 games have even been decided by single digits.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Villanova’s line is TBD against the winner of LIU Brooklyn-Radford in Tuesday’s First Four, but it will be massive. Kansas is -14 against Ivy League champion Penn.

One of the shortest lines on the Thursday board has No. 7 Rhode Island as a 2-point favorite over No. 10 Oklahoma. The Rams were the Atlantic 10 regular-season champions but lost by a point in the conference tournament final to Davidson. The storyline to watch there is in the backcourt with Rhode Island’s excellent senior duo of Jared Terrell and E.C. Matthews against Sooners freshman sensation Trae Young.