March Madness 2013 Picks: Predicting Winners of Thursday's Hard-to-Pick Matchups

Let the madness begin. Thursday marks the start of the 2013 NCAA tournament's round of 64, which will feature 32 games played over a 36-hour stretch.

While top-seeded teams like Louisville and Gonzaga are sure to steamroll into this weekend's third round, others will find themselves locked into epic battles. There are several double-digit underdogs coming into Thursday's action, but a few games that stand out feature no clear-cut favorite.

Here we'll predict the winners of Thursday's hard-to-pick matchups.

Midwest Region: No. 5 Oklahoma State over No. 12 Oregon

The Oregon Ducks aren't your average No. 12 seed. The Pac-12 champions are on fire, winning three straight games this March. They have already beaten UNLV, the No. 5 seed in the East Region, this season.

Oregon's opponent Oklahoma State will only be favored by three points coming into Thursday's matchup in San Jose, but I like them to advance past the Ducks in the loaded Midwest Region. A big reason why is that the Cowboys feature three gifted scorers in Marcus Smart, Markel Brown and Le'Bryan Nash.

The three stars are combining for roughly 45 points per game this season, and Smart ranks second in the nation with 2.9 steals per game.

I look for Oklahoma State's superior firepower to overwhelm Oregon in the second half on Thursday.

A case can be made for the Ducks, but freshman point guard Dominic Artis hasn't been the same since injuring his foot back in January.

East Region: No. 5 UNLV over No. 12 California

Two of the top teams on the West Coast will match up in San Jose on Thursday night in the East Region. The UNLV Rebels, who finished as runners-up in the Mountain West Conference tournament this past weekend, will be slight favorites over Cal.

These two schools met back in December in a wild game that UNLV won by a point on the road.

I look for the Rebels to earn another big win over the Golden Bears in the state of California on Thursday. This is a team that knocked off New Mexico earlier this season and has a go-to star in Anthony Bennett (16.1 points and 8.1 rebounds per game).

Sure, Cal features two excellent scorers in Allen Crabbe and Justin Cobbs, but the Bears have suffered too many head-scratching losses this season for me to believe they can beat this team at this stage. In addition to losing to NIT squads Stanford and Arizona State, Cal fell to Utah in the Pac-12 tournament and Harvard at home.

Midwest Region: No. 8 Colorado State over No. 9 Missouri

Thursday night's No. 8 vs. No. 9 matchup in the Midwest Region will feature two of the best rebounding teams in the country in Colorado State (40.4 per game) and Missouri (41.4 per game).

The Tigers are actually favored by three points in this matchup, which will be played in Lexington, Ky. However, I'm predicting a big win for the Rams in the round of 64. 

Colorado State picked up impressive victories over UNLV and San Diego State in the Mountain West this season and is No. 23 in the RPI rankings. Meanwhile, Missouri has dropped two of its last three games coming into the NCAA tournament.

I expect the senior leadership provided by Colton Iverson and Dorian Green to showcase itself for the Rams on Thursday. The 6'10" Iverson is a force down low, averaging 14.7 points and 9.8 rebounds per game, while Green is a talented backcourt player posting 12.8 points and 3.8 assists per game for Colorado State.

The argument can certainly be made that Missouri is the better team, but Colorado is a hotter team and has tremendous leadership.

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