Tyus Battle Syracuse
Syracuse is one of four teams playing in the NCAA Tournament Wednesday night. Pictured: Tyus Battle #25 of the Syracuse Orange dribbles down the court in the first half against the North Carolina Tar Heels during the second round of the ACC Men's Basketball Tournament at Barclays Center on March 7, 2018 in New York City. Abbie Parr/Getty Images

The NCAA Tournament field has been cut down to 66 teams, and only 64 teams will remain by Thursday morning. Day 2 of March Madness 2018 gets underway Wednesday night in Dayton, Ohio with the remaining two opening-round games.

Texas Southern, North Carolina Central, Syracuse and Arizona State will compete as part of the “First Four” games, meaning they’d each have to win seven games in total to complete the improbable dream of winning the national championship. No.16 Radford and No.11 St. Bonaventure both advanced to the first round with victories Tuesday night.

Let’s take a closer look at Wednesday’s NCAA Tournament games, including the start times, TV channels and betting odds.

No.16 Texas Southern vs. No. 16 North Carolina Central, 6:40 p.m. EDT, truTV

Texas Southern didn’t have the best record in the SWAC, but they’ll compete in March Madness after winning the conference tournament. The Tigers lost 13 straight games to start the season against a difficult non-conference schedule, finishing with an overall losing record.

The Eagles have won four more games than the Tigers, though they only finished sixth in the MEAC with a 9-7 conference record. North Carolina Central faced an easy schedule, never once taking on a ranked opponent.

Texas Southern is a 5.5-point favorite and the over/under is 146, according to OddsShark. The winner will try to become the first-ever No.16 seed to advance to the Round of 32 when they face No.1 Xavier in Nashville Friday night as part of the West region.

No.11 Syracuse vs. No.11 Arizona State, 9:10 p.m. EDT, truTV

The Orange will try to prove that they belong in the tournament after unexpectedly being selected as the last team in the field. Syracuse finished 10th in the ACC after going 8-10 in conference play, and they were blown out in their second conference tournament game.

Arizona State also went 8-10 in their conference, finishing eighth in the Pac-12. The Sun Devils are playing worse than just about any team in the field, having lost five of their last six games.

The contest opened as a pick’em, but the betting line has moved to 1.5 points in favor of Arizona State. The over/under is 140. The winner will go on to play No.6. TCU Friday night in Detroit as part of the Midwest region.

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