NCAA Bracket 2016: Picks, Odds Advice, Schedule After Tuesday's First Four Games

March Madness may not begin in most college basketball fans' eyes until the round of 64 tips off Thursday, but two teams advanced in the NCAA tournament field on Tuesday.  

Florida Gulf Coast steamrolled Fairleigh Dickinson 96-65 in the official Big Dance opener, and Wichita State used a second-half surge to defeat Vanderbilt 70-50 in the nightcap contest of Tuesday's First Four action.

The Eagles proceed to face North Carolina on Thursday in a game that is sure to feature a slew of Tar Heels fans making the trip to Raleigh. Head coach Gregg Marshall's Shockers have a more realistic shot at advancing as an 11th seed and will take on Arizona in the South Region.

Read on for some notable picks and odds advice for what should be a magnificent tourney.

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2016 NCAA Tournament Analysis, Advice

There has never been a 16th seed that has defeated a No. 1. Considering the home-court advantage North Carolina is going to have against Florida Gulf Coast, don't expect an unprecedented upset to occur this coming Thursday in that contest.

As for Wichita State, its elite defense has its work cut out for itself to knock off Arizona, who shoots 48.2 percent as a team and 38.3 percent from three-point range. The worst of the Wildcats' eight losses came by eight points on Jan. 28 at the hands of No. 1 West Region seed Oregon.

In terms of the March Madness favorites, check out the top contenders, courtesy of Odds Shark's latest listings:

Team	Odds
Kansas	+650
North Carolina	+700
Michigan State	+750
Virginia	+1100
Kentucky	+1300
Oklahoma	+1400
Villanova	+1500
Xavier	+1600
West Virginia	+1800
Oregon	+1800

The list was worth stretching to include the top 10 because of the Ducks' presence so far down the list, despite being one of the top four squads based on the selection committee's hierarchy.

A lot of the outlook for the favorites has to do with their road to the Final Four. Michigan State's road is rather easy, and head coach Tom Izzo is among the most dependable postseason coaches, having led the Spartans to the national semifinals last year as a seventh seed with less talent.

Look for Sparty, led by stupendous guard Denzel Valentine, to keep the pressure on Virginia in the Midwest.

The Cavaliers could be on the precipice of a big program breakthrough but have to deal with the expectations of being a No. 1 seed. They didn't fare well in 2015 as a second seed and were upset in the round of 32.

Just look at the disparity between Michigan State and Virginia in the championship odds. This isn't by mistake. It's hard to beat the value presented by Sparty as a third favorite to win the national title and seems to be the best overall wager.

SportsLine.com's Todd Fuhrman noted how Izzo's side is historically the one to bet on in individual games as well:

North Carolina returns much of last year's team that bowed out to eventual national runner-up Wisconsin in the Sweet 16.

The problem is the Tar Heels may go up against ninth-seeded Providence after their Big Dance opener. The Friars boast a dynamic point guard in Kris Dunn and a phenomenal forward in Ben Bentil who averages 21.2 points per contest. That tandem could well trigger a UNC upset.

Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports referenced how USC, Providence's first-round opponent, also fields considerable firepower, sporting the nation's No. 20 scoring offense at 80.8 points per game:

Headlining the favorites list are the Kansas Jayhawks. For the 12th year in a row under head coach Bill Self, they won the Big 12 conference—and they lived up to the hype as the nation's consensus top-ranked team by winning their conference tournament.

Self expressed pride in his Jayhawks last month when explaining how they didn't have any elite NBA prospects in the fold.

"Our personnel is good, really good—I'm not going to apologize for our personnel," said Self, per USA Today's Nicole Auerbach. "But we've run some lottery picks out there in the past, and we're not running them out there right now. It's more of a really grind-it-out type of team effort."

With plenty of momentum and a path to Houston—the Final Four host city—that isn't too arduous on paper, betting against Kansas to at least go that deep isn't wise.

Villanova is facing similar pressure to Virginia and may actually have a harder battle to fight as a widely viewed overrated team. The Wildcats have been bounced in the round of 32 the past two years despite a 62-8 aggregate record in that span.

In the midst of his 15th season, head coach Jay Wright has guided Villanova to the Final Four only once. Getting to the Elite Eight to earn the right to face Kansas would be an achievement in and of itself considering the pressure of recent years' shortcomings.

The matchup in the grand finale points to a Kansas-Michigan State showdown. The chip Sparty will have on their shoulder as a No. 2 seed is something Izzo should relish exploiting as a motivational tactic to drive his team to a second championship during his tenure.