No. 16. Mt. St. Mary's vs No. 16 New Orleans Preview: Game Time, Broadcast, Betting Line, Prediction
The 16th-seeded Mt. St. Mary's Mountaineers (19-15) take on the No. 16 seed New Orleans Privateers (20-11) in a "First Four" game. The game will be played at the University of Dayton Arena in Dayton on Tuesday at 6:40 p.m. E.T.
Preview: Mt. St. Mary's made it to the Big Dance by winning the NEC regular and postseason championships. They beat St. Francis (Pa.) 71-61 in the NEC Championship game last week. Guards Elijah Long (15.4 ppg) and Junior Robinson (14.1 ppg) lead the way for Mt. St. Mary's.
New Orleans, meanwhile, beat Texas A&M Corpus-Christi 68-65 to win the Southland Conference title. Senior forward Erik Thomas (19.5 ppg, 7.8 rpg) is UNO's top gun.
The winner of this game will face top-seeded Villanova. You can check out the entire NCAA Tournament bracket here. You can also see how the committee ranked the teams 1-68 here.
Date: Tuesday, March 14
Time: 6:40 p.m. E.T.
TV Channel: truTV
Location: University of Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio
Announcers: Brian Anderson, Clark Kellogg, Lewis Johnson
Opening Betting Line: New Orleans -1.5, via OddsShark
Mt. St. Mary's has made four previous NCAA Tournament appearances, the last coming in 2014. They fell in the "First Four" that year, losing 71-64 to Albany.
This is first NCAA appearance for New Orleans since 1996, and the fifth overall for the Privateers. In 1996, UNO was an 11-seed and lost to sixth-seeded North Carolina 83-62.
Prediction: This game is a toss-up, as neither of these teams have a ton of NCAA Tournament experience and are rather unfamiliar to each other.
We'll say Mt. St. Mary's sneaks one out and earns a date with Villanova.