March Madness: MSU Opens In Detroit, Michigan Off To Wichita

DETROIT, MI – The Michigan State University will play their opening March Madness game in Detroit. It's not quite home court advantage, but Little Caesar's Arena is about as close to home as the Spartans could ask for.

MSU was seeded No. 3 in the Midwest Region of the NCAA Tournament. The Spartans play at 7:10 p.m. in Detroit against the No. 14 seed Bucknell.

Meanwhile, in-state rival Michigan earned the No. 3 seed in the West Region. The Wolverines open at a 9:50 p.m. on Thursday at No. 14 Montana. The Wolverines, however, will be playing at Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita, Kansas.

The full lineup of the 68 teams competing in the 2018 NCAA men's basketball tournament was set Sunday, with Virginia taking the overall No. 1 seed followed by Villanova, Xavier and Kansas. Games begin Tuesday, March 13.

Some teams had already earned their way to the big dance as winners of 32 conference tournament. A 10-person committee selected the remaining 38 in a process that always ends with arguments about the decisions, why this team or that team made it and why these teams over here didn't.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski, perhaps the most recognizable college basketball coach ever, has his Duke Blue Devils poised to go deep into yet another tournament, though they looked shaky in their ACC Tournament loss Friday to rival North Carolina, the defending national champions.

Tar Heels coach Roy Williams will have to rely on his team's deep experience to stabilize what has been up-and-down play over the past several weeks.

List of automatic bids to the 2018 NCAA men's basketball tournament.

This year, the Villanova Wildcats, just two years removed from their last national championship season, are favored to win it all, according to the latest odds from VegasInsider.com. Duke and the University of Virginia Cavaliers round out the top three favorites. North Carolina is No. 7. The top 10:

• Villanova, 9/2
• Duke, 5/1
• Virginia, 6/1
• Michigan State, 8/1
• Michigan, 9/1
• Kansas, 10/1
• North Carolina 12/1
• Purdue 12/1
• Wichita State 14/1
• Florida 20/1

But the annual tournament, which dates to 1939, is regarded as one of the most unpredictable events in all of sports, with big upsets popping up nearly every day of the tournament and Cinderella stories seeming to be written every year.

>>> Here's the 2018 NCAA men's basketball tournament printable bracket.
>>> Here's the 2018 NCAA men's basketball tournament schedule.

CBS Sports and Turner Sports will provide live coverage of all 67 games from the 2018 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship across four national television networks – TBS, CBS and TNT. All games will be streamed on NCAA March Madness Live.

In 2006, George Mason University became the second 11-seed in history to reach the Final Four. Just last season, the Xavier Musketeers, seeded 11th out of a possible 16 seeds, reached the Elite Eight. The South Carolina Gamecocks, seeded 7th, made it all the way to the Final Four in the same tournament.
UCLA has the most titles with 11. The University of Kentucky has the second-most with eight championships and the University of North Carolina has six.

Photo: Cassius Winston #5 of the Michigan State Spartans reacts in the second half against the Michigan Wolverines during semifinals of the Big 10 Basketball Tournament at Madison Square Garden on March 3, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images)