NCAA Scores 2016: March Madness Bracket, Schedule After First Four Results

The field of 64 is officially set. Wins by Holy Cross and Michigan on Wednesday closed out the First Four games a day after Wichita State and Florida Gulf Coast breezed their way into the field.  

The win for Holy Cross continues an improbable streak that started with its conference tournament. The Crusaders, who went 5-13 in league play and had only 10 wins overall coming into the Patriot League tournament, pulled off four straight road wins to make the First Four. 

Wednesday night they got off to another hot start, opening up a lead as big as 12 points in the first half before holding on for a win. Southern came back in the second half briefly, but Robert Champion's 19-point game off the bench pushed the Crusaders to a 59-55 win.

Michigan and Tulsa also put on a low-scoring, highly contested matchup. The Wolverines held Tulsa to just 20 first-half points but weren't ever able to stretch the lead beyond reproach. The Golden Hurricane came back to tie the game within the first three minutes of the first half, and the two sides played close the rest of the way.

A Zak Irvin three with 55 seconds remaining ultimately gave the game to Michigan, as the Wolverines pulled away in the final minute for a 67-62 win. 

With that in mind, let's take a look at how Wednesday's scores changed the first-round bracket. 

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Matchup	Result
Florida Gulf Coast vs. Fairleigh Dickinson	96-65
Vanderbilt vs. Wichita State	70-50, Wichita State
Holy Cross vs. Southern	59-55, Holy Cross
Michigan vs. Tulsa	66-61, Michigan

 Here's a full schedule of game times, courtesy of NCAA.com.

West Region: No. 16 Holy Cross vs. No. 1 Oregon

John Minchillo/Associated Press

There's not much to say here. It didn't matter whether Holy Cross or Southern won. There's no one on the planet—not even proud Holy Cross alumnus Bill Simmons—who is taking the Crusaders to defeat Oregon. 

The Ducks are by far the weakest No. 1 seed, but this is a mismatch in every facet. Ken Pomeroy's metrics have Oregon as the 10th-best team in the country; those same metrics have Holy Cross 268th. The Ducks rank fifth in offensive efficiency and 47th on the other end, which has been seen as a weakness. That 47th ranking is a solid 154 spots ahead of where Holy Cross sits; defense has been the Crusaders' "specialty."

Now, none of this is meant to degrade what Holy Cross has done over the last couple of weeks. The program hadn't been to the NCAA tournament since 2007 and descended to almost complete irrelevance in recent years. Their run through the Patriot League was one of the more improbable things we've seen this basketball season, and everyone involved deserves to take pride.

"I think it's fantastic," head coach Bill Carmody said, per ESPN.com. "It's everything we're trying to do at Holy Cross. We're trying to jump-start the program because we realize what an athletic program can do for a school. It's a great first step."

Carmody's not wrong. Maybe this is the first step in turning Holy Cross into, if not a national power, a regularly competitive team in the Patriot League.

The road just ends here. Oregon is coming off a 31-point win over a talented Utah team and ran off eight straight wins to close its regular season. The Ducks have four players who score at least 12 points per game and run a highly efficient offense despite a disconcertingly low assist rate. This is going to get ugly quick, especially if Oregon is able to force turnovers in the opening minutes.

Midwest Region: No. 11 Michigan vs. No. 6 Notre Dame

John Minchillo/Associated Press

While both Vanderbilt and Wichita State were statistical upset fodder coming into the tournament, the same could not be said for Michigan or Tulsa. Both ranked outside the KenPom.com top 50 and didn't frankly inspire much confidence from an eye-test standpoint. 

The Wolverines are nowhere near as dangerous without star guard Caris LeVert. They were 12-3 with him in the lineup and are 11-8 in games where he hasn't played. While those numbers are skewed a bit by LeVert mostly playing in nonconference games, no one questions how sorely the Wolverines miss him. LeVert was averaging 16.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.9 assists, at times acting as the team's offensive fulcrum.

Those duties have trickled to Zak Irvin and Derrick Walton Jr., who have done an admirable job but not well enough to hide the Wolverines' true deficiency: defense. They entered the tournament ranking outside the top 100 in national defensive efficiency. In terms of raw defensive efficiency, only eight tournament teams were worse than the Wolverines.

The good news? One of them was Notre Dame. The Irish rank 172nd in adjusted defensive efficiency and 267th by the raw numbers. They're an absolute mess at times when it comes to rotations, and their perimeter defense can be lacking in spots. This is a very beatable team, and their matchup with Michigan will come down to who can make more shots.

The bad news? Notre Dame almost always makes more shots. The Irish rank 10th in adjusted offense and spent a good amount of the season even higher. Five Irish players, three of whom can reasonably stretch the floor, score at least 11 points per game. 

Demetrius Jackson, Zach Auguste, Steve Vasturia and V.J. Beachem are all veterans who have been in big tournament situations before. They were each part of last year's Elite Eight team and received significant playing time.

Perhaps if LeVert were taking part in festivities, Michigan would be a fashionable upset pick. In reality, these are two similarly skilled (and flawed) teams. Notre Dame's just better at what both excel at. 

Advanced stats courtesy of KenPom.com unless otherwise noted.