NCAA Tournament 2015: Bracket, Schedule, and TV livestreaming for Thursday's Sweet 16 Games

It appears the Texas Longhorns burned me. After calling them a "value pick" and "investing" in them in my nerdy NCAA March Madness stock game, they lost to Butler in their first game. Fortunately, I hit on Wichita State and Utah as both advanced past better seeded opponents in the Round of 32 and will play in the Sweet 16.

In our Real Time Bracket Challenge, myself (Ryan Kantor), damedz, and gggmen08 are the STS regulars perched towards the top still battling with a chance to win. Damedz and myself correctly picked the Wichita State vs. Kansas game while gggmen08 hit on the Virginia upset. With those upsets already in the books, do you see any in the upcoming slate of games?

After some great games in the opening rounds, there are plenty of good games all week, but these two games on Thursday caught my eye. They each include an ACC team and while it isn't football money, their successes are paying real dividends to the ACC coffers.

Thursday, March 26

#2 Wisconsin vs. #4 North Carolina (7:47pm): Of the eight teams playing in Sweet 16 games involving an ACC team, KenPom gives the highest Win Likelihood to Wisconsin. The Badgers are riding an eight game win streak which includes two wins over Michigan State, and wins over Purdue, Ohio State, and Oregon. UNC plays the 12th quickest tempo in college basketball while Wisconsin takes the Clemson approach and is the 6th slowest (even fewer possessions than Clemson). It'll be interesting to see who controls the pace.

#3 Notre Dame vs. #7 Wichita State (7:15pm): Wichita State proved to be more than just a product of a light conference schedule by beating in-state behemoth, Kansas. Now they'll have to beat the ACC Champs to reach the Elite 8 for the 5th time in school history. Wichita State was badly under-seeded, as I argued in last week's thread, and KenPom (if I wasn't a believer before, I certainly am now) actually gives them a slightly better than 50% chance to beat the Irish.

The full schedule for tonight:

Enjoy the games and comment below, we'll have another preview up on Friday night.