NCAA Basketball Tournament 2015: Sweet 16, Elite Eight Schedule, Odds and Picks

The return of the bracket once again plunges the globe into madness.

While the first three rounds were fun with plenty of upsets—no 12-over-5, but No. 14s running wild—individual star performances and games decided in the closing seconds, the Sweet 16 promises to top even the path so far.

Of course, so it goes when most of the top teams in the bracket advance. The seeding process isn't perfect, which makes things all the more interesting with Wichita State and Michigan State as underrated seeds.

Thursday's action promises to deliver and Friday's will come in a hurry, so brush up on all the details to avoid getting swept away by the madness.

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2015 Sweet 16 Schedule and Odds

	Thursday
	Friday
Time (ET)	Matchup (Odds)	TV	Pick	Time (ET)
7:15 p.m.	No. 3 Notre Dame vs. No. 7 Wichita State (-1.5)	CBS	Notre Dame	7:15 p.m.
7:47 p.m.	No. 1 Wisconsin (-3.5) vs. No. 8 North Carolina	TBS	Wisconsin	7:47 p.m.
9:45 p.m.	No. 1 Kentucky (-13.5) vs. No. 5 West Virginia	CBS	Kentucky	9:45 p.m.
10:17 p.m.	No. 2 Arizona (-10.5) vs. No. 6 Xavier	TBS	Arizona	10:17 p.m.
7:15 p.m.	No. 2 Gonzaga (-8.5) vs. No. 11 UCLA	CBS	Gonzaga	7:15 p.m.
7:37 p.m.	No. 4 Louisville (-3) vs. No. 8 North Carolina State	TBS	NC State	7:37 p.m.
9:45 p.m.	No. 1 Duke (-6) vs. No. 5 Utah	CBS	Duke	9:45 p.m.
10:07 p.m.	No. 3 Oklahoma vs. No. 7 Michigan State (-2.5)	TBS	MSU	10:07 p.m.

Odds courtesy of Odds Shark as of March 25 at 10 p.m. ET.

Elite Eight Schedule

Region	Date	Matchup
Midwest	March 28	Winner of No. 1 UK/No. 5 WVU vs. winner of No. 3 ND/No. 7 WICH
West	March 28	Winner of No. 1 WIS/No. 4 UNC vs. winner of No. 6 XAV/ARIZ
East	March 29	Winner of No. 8 NCSU/No. 4 LOU vs. winner of No. 3 OKLA/No. 7 MSU
South	March 29	Winner of No. 1 DUKE/No. 5 UTAH vs. winner of No. 11 UCLA/No. 2 GONZ

Upset Alert: Notre Dame 

Notre Dame picked a bad time to be shaky.

While the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Wichita State Shockers rank right next to one another in ESPN's RPI rankings, not all is well for the former.

Inconsistency has been an issue for the Fighting Irish, something that was clear over the course of the team's first two games. The team needed 57.4 percent shooting from the field to escape 14th-seeded Northeastern in the second round, then overtime to send sixth-seeded Butler home. 

As ESPN Stats & Info points out with advanced data, the upcoming encounter will be the closest of all Sweet 16 matchups:

For good reason, too.

Not only has Notre Dame struggled, Wichita State breezed past Indiana in the second round before a public dissection of second-seeded Kansas, 78-65. There, the Shockers shot 49.0 percent from the field and hit half of their attempts from deep.

While Notre Dame ranks third in adjusted offensive efficiency at KenPom.com, it ranks 103rd on the defensive spectrum. Wichita State, on the other hand, ranks 16th and 13th, respectively.

The Shockers are under-seeded and dangerous, so unless the Fighting Irish put on one of their best shooting performances of the season, an upset seems to be in order.

Can Anyone Cover the Spread Against Kentucky…Or Win?

Kudos to Bob Huggins' West Virginia Mountaineers—a shot at history awaits Thursday against the Kentucky Wildcats.

Ranked 24th in RPI, the Mountaineers avoided a 12-over-5 scenario in the second round against Buffalo before taking down a red-hot Maryland team 69-59. It took four starters in double digits and the Terrapins turning the ball over 23 times, but a win is a win.

The thing is, like the rest of the country, the Mountaineers don't seem to stand a chance against the Wildcats by any metric, including efficiency numbers from KenPom.com:

Team	ADJ OFF	ADJ DEF
Kentucky	6	1
West Virginia	37	39

For what it's worth, the Mountaineers are at least confident.

Brett Dawson of Rivals.com captures strong words from West Virginia guard Daxter Miles:

The first step is belief, right?

Kentucky, other than the undefeated regular season and SEC tournament, blew past Hampton and Cincinnati to start the tournament. As much as it may be fun to think West Virginia can control the pace of the game and play its style, Willie Cauley-Stein and Karl-Anthony Towns—not to mention a rotation running nine deep—should put an end to the thought.

West Virginia isn't the first team to come in against the Wildcats confident, nor is it the first looking to impose its will. It's a long shot, but the defining trait of the period is madness, so keep an eye out just in case.

Thursday Star to Watch: Rondae Hollis-Jefferson

The Arizona Wildcats are on a roll.

A sixth slot in RPI as well as the second slot in KenPom.com's ratings (seventh in adjusted offense, third in adjusted defense) suggest nobody should be shocked.

Arizona blew past Texas Southern to start things off, the 93-72 result in large part so skewed thanks to 23 points and 10 boards on 7-of-9 shooting from Rondae Hollis-Jefferson.

Now, the sophomore wasn't as impressive in a third-round 73-58 shellacking of Ohio State, but 11 points and 10 rebounds on 3-of-12 shooting is still rather impressive given the number of shots that didn't fall.

Where Hollis-Jefferson doesn't get enough credit is on the defensive end of the court. In the triumph against the Buckeyes, he shut down D'Angelo Russell—a potential top NBA draft pick—forcing him to shoot 3-of-19 from the field.

Sports Illustrated's Seth Davis put it best:

Arizona will need Hollis-Jefferson to be on top of his game against Xavier Thursday to silence a Musketeers attack averaging 73.6 points per game and ranking among the top 30 teams in the nation in field-goal percentage (.473).

It would help if he could have a strong shooting night, too, but sometimes the top performances of the NCAA tournament don't come on the offensive end of the court.

Stats and info are courtesy of ESPN.com unless otherwise specified.