NCAA Tournament: Preview & Picks for Sunday’s Late-Night Second-Round Games

A strong slate of night games for Sunday’s Round of 32 dockets will give us our last dosage of March Madness before play resumes Thursday. Here are our favorite plays to solidify that bankroll leading up to the Sweet 16.

7:10 p.m. ET | #6 Creighton vs. #3 Baylor | TBS

Baylor’s trio of guards is exceptional and will keep this game exciting and riveting, but I don’t see Baylor having an answer to Creighton’s length. Center Ryan Kalkbrenner defined Friday’s win for the Blue Jays, dropping 31 points and setting the ton defensively, adding three blocks. They have talented wings and a balanced offense that is going to give Creighton enough firepower to pull the seeding upset. This could be the game of the day.

Pick: Creighton ML (-106)

7:45 p.m. ET | #16 Fairleigh Dickinson vs. #9 Florida Atlantic | truTV

Fairleigh Dickinson etched itself in tournament history, becoming the second 16-seed to beat a 1-seed in the tournament on Friday over Purdue. They showed tremendous fight, led at the half, didn’t waver, and are now playing with house money. One of the most dangerous things in March Madness. They sit at 15.5 point underdogs currently.

If we take 15-seed Princeton, they were only 6.5-point underdogs against 7-seed Missouri. Does Fairleigh Dickinson warrant being nine points worse against a lower seed?  If we take the last 16-seed to beat a 1-seed with UMBC, they showed great fight in their Round of 32 to ultimately only lose by seven. This is a ton of points, too many. As we say, good teams win, and great teams cover.

Pick: Fairleigh Dickinson +15.5

8:40 p.m. ET | #5 Miami vs. #4 Indiana | TNT

The dominance of Indiana’s Trayce Jackson-Davis is something else as he put on a clinic against Kent State, dropping 24 points with 11 boards and five blocks. He was unstoppable. Nonetheless, I really like this Hurricanes team.

They were on the backend of the tournament’s most trendy first-round upset against Drake, but they pulled off such a resilient victory, outsourcing Drake 16-1 in the last five minutes of the game to pull out the win. This is all while All-ACC guard Isaiah Wong only made a single field goal which won’t happen again. I’ll ride with a well-coached team led by Jim Larranaga that has deep tournament experience carrying over from last season.

Pick: Miami +1.5

9:40 p.m. ET | #6 TCU vs. #3 Gonzaga | TBS

I struggle to go against Gonzaga’s tournament pedigree and veteran leadership in this spot.  TCU is a nice team that pulled out an emotional win over Arizona State in the opening round, but they play a bit erratic, which worries me against an experienced Gonzaga squad. They’ve reached the Sweet 16 in seven consecutive tournaments, and I don’t see TCU ending that streak. This game should be race with a projected total that’s north of 153, the highest of the day, but I’ll lay the points with the team that’s been here before.

Pick: Gonzaga -4.5