Everything You Need to Know About March Madness Day Two

Those first 16 games of the 2017 NCAA tournament were so much fun, what do you say we run it back again?

Upsets were few and far between, but not for lack of effort. A bunch of underdogs came within one or two possessions of busting brackets around the nation. But the only worse-seeded teams to win were No. 11 Xavier and No. 12 Middle Tennessee, and neither of those was much of a surprise.

Maybe the carnage is waiting for Friday.

Most Likely Upsets

No. 11 Rhode Island vs. No. 6 Creighton: These teams could not be trending in more opposite directions.

Rhode Island is on a tear, winning eight in a row and playing fantastic in the A-10 tournament. With E.C. Matthews and Hassan Martin leading the way, the Rams look better right now than they have looked in more than a decade. Regardless of draw, Rhode Island was going to be a sexy sleeper to reach the Sweet 16.

And then there's Creighton, which lost seven of its final 12 regular-season games after losing star point guard Maurice Watson Jr. to a torn ACL. The Bluejays can still make it rain from three-point range, and they showed us something in beating both Providence and Xavier in the Big East tournament. However, this is not the same team that felt like a threat to reach the Final Four two months ago.

No. 11 Kansas State over No. 6 Cincinnati: The obvious pick here would be No. 10 Wichita State over No. 7 Dayton, but we're not comfortable calling that an upset, since Wichita State is a six-point favorite in Vegas, according to Odds Shark. Instead, let's do a double dip on the No. 11 line with one of the First Four winners.

It's practically a given that either Kansas State or USC is going to win. In every season since the field expanded to 68 teams in 2011, one of the two at-large teams that advanced out of the First Four went on to win at least one more game. It's just a matter of figuring out which one gets the job done.

Considering Kansas State won games away from home this season against Baylor (twice), Oklahoma State, TCU, Colorado State and Wake Forest while USC struggled on the road all season long, the Wildcats are the obvious choice. Cincinnati likes to win with physicality, but Kansas State will give that aggressive style right back to the Bearcats in spades. This figures to be a slow-paced, low-scoring game where Cincinnati's struggles from the free-throw line could be the difference.

Biggest Stars in Action

Lance King/Getty

Jayson Tatum, Duke: If you want a preview of the freshmen about to take the NBA by storm, Friday is the day for you. We're giving you the top three in this space, but there are also Miles Bridges (Michigan State), Justin Patton (Creighton), De'Aaron Fox (Kentucky) and Malik Monk (Kentucky). You could be watching one half of the 14 players drafted in the lottery in June.

If Tatum keeps playing like he has been for the past six weeks, he's going to be the best pro of the bunch. On a Duke team loaded with star players, Tatum has become the clear-cut alpha dog. He averaged 22.0 points and 7.5 rebounds in leading the Blue Devils to four wins in four days in the ACC tournament.

Josh Jackson, Kansas: With senior teammate Frank Mason becoming the top candidate for National Player of the Year, Jackson's sensational freshman season has flown somewhat below the national radar. But his importance to this team can be summed up in the fact that the Jayhawks lost to TCU in the Big 12 tournament while Jackson served a one-game suspension for a traffic incident.

Early in the year, draft experts were concerned about Jackson's shooting stroke. He still struggles from the free-throw line, but he shot 43.5 percent from three-point range in conference play. Jackson is also a great rebounder and possibly the best defensive wing in the country.

Lonzo Ball, UCLA: But the star that everyone wants to see is this one. His dad is a one-man media circus (more on that in a bit), but Lonzo Ball is a one-man wrecking crew on the court, averaging 14.6 points, 7.7 assists and 6.1 rebounds per game while turning the Bruins into arguably the most prolific offense in more than a decade.

Ethan Miller/Getty

UCLA couldn't even manage to win half of its games last season, but Ball has the Bruins at 29-4 and averaging more than 90 points per game. He somehow hasn't recorded a triple-double yet this season, but maybe he's just saving his first for the Big Dance.

Game Most Likely to Produce a Buzzer-Beater 

No. 7 Michigan vs. No. 10 Oklahoma State: For starters, these are two of the five most efficient offenses in the tournament, and neither one plays a ton of defense. Not only will the game potentially produce a buzzer-beater, but it's also the one most likely to feature multiple daggers in the final 60 seconds that would send social media into a frenzy.

Now, factor in the magical run Michigan has been on, winning the Big Ten tournament despite barely arriving in one piece after a plane crash. Whether the Wolverines are on the receiving or delivering end of the buzzer-beater, they aren't done with the drama yet.

1 Player You Should Be Rooting For: Katin Reinhardt, Marquette

Katin Reinhardt is the poster child of college basketball's transfer epidemic trend. He started at UNLV, went to USC for two years and is now playing out his final days of eligibility at Marquette. The man has basically been a free agent. But that's not why you should root for him. 

This is the third different school Reinhardt has helped carry to the NCAA tournament, and the first two were painfully eliminated from the dance—USC lost by one to Providence last year, and UNLV was upset by California 64-61 in 2013. Perhaps this will be the year Reinhardt finally advances to the second round.

Prop Bet of the Day: LaVar Ball On-Camera Appearances

Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

If you're not familiar with Lonzo Ball's father, LaVar, he has become the most interesting character of the 2016-17 college basketball season. Each day seems to come with a new outlandish LaVar story, from saying that he could beat Michael Jordan in one-on-one to suggesting Lonzo is already better than Steph Curry. And it's just getting started with younger sons LiAngelo and LaMelo coming through our ranks in the next few years.

At some point during the game, truTV's sideline reporter is going to interview LaVar Ball, but the entirety of that interview only counts as one on-camera appearance for this prop bet. Still, they'll make it a point to show dad any time the son does something noteworthy. We're setting the over/under at 15.5, but even that feels too low.

Day Two's Games

No. 7 Michigan vs. No. 10 Oklahoma State, 12:15 p.m. ET on CBS

No. 3 Baylor vs. No. 14 New Mexico State, 12:40 p.m. ET on truTV

No. 8 Arkansas vs. No. 9 Seton Hall, 1:30 p.m. ET on TNT

No. 3 Oregon vs. No. 14 Iona, 2:00 p.m. ET on TBS

No. 2 Louisville vs. No. 15 Jacksonville State, 2:45 p.m. ET on CBS

No. 6 SMU vs. No. 11 USC, 3:10 p.m. ET on truTV

No. 1 North Carolina vs. No. 16 Texas Southern, 4:00 p.m. ET on TNT

No. 6 Creighton vs. No. 11 Rhode Island, 4:30 p.m. ET on TBS

No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 16 UC Davis, 6:50 p.m. ET on TNT

No. 7 Dayton vs. No. 10 Wichita State, 7:10 p.m. ET on CBS

No. 2 Duke vs. No. 15 Troy, 7:20 p.m. ET on TBS

No. 6 Cincinnati vs. No. 11 Kansas State, 7:27 p.m. ET on truTV

No. 8 Miami vs. No. 9 Michigan State, 9:20 p.m. ET on TNT

No. 2 Kentucky vs. No. 15 Northern Kentucky, 9:40 p.m. ET on CBS

No. 7 South Carolina vs. No. 10 Marquette, 9:50 p.m. ET on TBS

No. 3 UCLA vs. No. 14 Kent State, 9:57 p.m. ET on truTV

Live streams for all games available at NCAA.com. 

Stats courtesy of WarrenNolan.com, KenPom.com and Sports-Reference.com.

Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @kerrancejames.