Benzinga - by Chris Katje, Benzinga Staff Writer.
After the first weekend of games, the 2024 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament is down to the Sweet 16 with the remaining teams hoping to win the March Madness Tournament.
For 10 of the 16 teams, this would mark a first NCAA Basketball championship.
What Happened: The odds of a perfect bracket in March Madness are 1 in 9.2 quintillion and many found that out the hard way with no perfect brackets remaining after the first two days of games in the first round.
The 2024 Sweet 16 features all the 1 and 2 seeds for only the fifth time since tournament expansion in 1985. While there were several upsets in the first round and the first two days of play, the second round saw the majority of the favorites win. This year's Sweet 16 includes only one seed higher than 6 (11-seed North Carolina State).
Here are the Sweet 16 matchups and the betting odds from DraftKings Inc (NASDAQ:DKNG).
Thursday:
- (6) Clemson vs. (2) Arizona -7.5
- (5) San Diego State vs. (1) Connecticut -11
- (4) Alabama vs. (1) North Carolina -4.5
- (3) Illinois vs. (2) Iowa State 01.5
- (11) North Carolina State vs. (2) Marquette -6.5
- (5) Gonzaga vs. (1) Purdue -5.5
- (4) Duke vs. (1) Houston -4
- (3) Creighton vs. (2) Tennessee -3
- Connecticut: +210
- Houston: +500
- Purdue: +650
- Arizona: +900
- North Carolina: +1100
- Tennessee: +1300
- Marquette: +1600
- Iowa State: +2000
- Duke: +2200
- Gonzaga: +2500
- Creighton: +2500
- Alabama: +3500
- Illinois: +3500
- San Diego State: +7000
- Clemson: +8000
- North Carolina State: +9000
Related Link: March Madness 2024: Betting Odds, How To Watch NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, Use Data To Predict Winner
Making History: Ten of the 16 remaining teams have never won a basketball championship.
Let's start with the teams that have. That list includes Arizona, Connecticut, Duke, Marquette, North Carolina and North Carolina State.
The remaining 10 teams have never won a championship and several have never reached the Final 4.
- Alabama: Never been to a Final Four
- Clemson: Never been to a Final Four
- Creighton: Never been to Elite Eight
- Gonzaga: Lost championship games in 2017, 2021
- Houston: Lost championship games in 1983, 1984
- Illinois: Lost championship game in 2005
- Iowa State: Never been to a Final Four
- Purdue: Never been to a Final Four
- San Diego State: Lost championship game 2023
- Tennessee: Never been to a Final Four
Houston and Purdue were the second and third most picked teams in the ESPN Tournament Challenge at 13.6% and 10.1% respectively, trailing only the 24.7% who picked Connecticut to win back-to-back championships.
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