NCAA Tournament 2015: Updated Schedule and Odds for Remainder of March Madness

Your bracket may be busted and your alma mater may be eliminated from the NCAA tournament, but you can still enjoy the remainder of March Madness if you hitch onto the bandwagon of one of the 16 teams still in the field.

The easiest way to do that is by looking at the championship odds and selecting one that appeals to you as an underdog or even a safe favorite.

With that in mind, here is a look at an updated bracket as the Sweet 16 approaches, as well as some title odds for the remainder of the Big Dance.

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Updated Bracket

Championship Odds (via Odds Shark, as of Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET)

Team	Odds
Kentucky	1-1
Arizona	13-2
Duke	8-1
Wisconsin	8-1
Gonzaga	12-1
Michigan State	14-1
Utah	20-1
Louisville	25-1
Oklahoma	25-1
North Carolina	33-1
Notre Dame	33-1
Wichita State	33-1
NC State	50-1
UCLA	100-1
West Virginia	100-1
Xavier	100-1

Intriguing Underdogs to Watch

North Carolina State (50-1)

An inconsistent team can be a dangerous thing for opponents when March Madness rolls around because if everything comes together at the right time, we have ourselves a squad that is much better than its seed indicates.

That is the case for the North Carolina State Wolfpack, the No. 8 seed in the East Region.

North Carolina State shocked LSU in the round of 64 with a last-second game-winner and then controlled the majority of the game against No. 1 Villanova, completing one of the bigger upsets of the entire tournament. Now the Wolfpack are starting to look like a dark-horse Final Four contender given the way they are playing.

After all, we are talking about a team that beat Duke, North Carolina and Louisville and took Notre Dame to overtime this season. The East Region is also wide open after the Wolfpack stunned Villanova and Michigan State knocked out No. 2 Virginia, and Kentucky is on the other side of the bracket.

North Carolina State already beat Louisville—its Sweet 16 opponent—once this season and proved it can beat Duke, which is a potential Final Four matchup.

Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

It also believes it can play with anyone if BeeJay Anya’s comments are any indication, according to The Associated Press, via ESPN.com: “We came out today with the feeling that everybody expected us to lose to a 1-seed, but we believe in ourselves and that we're good enough to beat anybody in the country, and we went down and did it.” 

With Trevor Lacey as an elite scorer and a number of dangerous supporting cast members, North Carolina State will be a difficult out for any team remaining in this tournament. That makes it an intriguing underdog to watch, especially with 50-1 odds.

Wichita State (33-1)

Wichita State is nobody’s little brother, as it proved by beating Kansas in the round of 32, but it is still something of an underdog in this tournament considering some of the blueblood names still alive, such as Kentucky, Duke, Michigan State, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

Still, this team lost a whopping four times all season and has the dangerous combination of talent and experience with Ron Baker, Fred VanVleet and Tekele Cotton.

The Shockers reached the Final Four two seasons ago and played Kentucky last season to the final seconds in what was arguably the best tournament game of 2014’s Big Dance. They aren’t going to be intimidated by the Wildcats (or anyone else), even if some of Kentucky’s pieces are different this time around. 

ESPN Stats & Info noted that success as underdog in March is nothing new for the Shockers, either:

Gary Parrish of CBS Sports also pointed out that this year’s team is far from done after its monumental victory over the in-state Jayhawks:

The most difficult obstacle in Wichita State’s path is the Midwest Region. After all, that is where mighty Kentucky still resides, as well as a potent Notre Dame offense that will face the Shockers in the Sweet 16. 

While the path will be difficult, this Wichita State squad has Final Four experience and talent across the floor at a number of different positions. That is a lethal combination in March, and one the Wildcats and the rest of the field will have to be acutely aware of the rest of the way.

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