Posted at 12:30 PM EST odds are subject to change.

Pinnacle -2 -107  BET365  -2 -110 Sportsinteraction -2 -110 888Sport -2 -110

Legacy Arena at BJCC, Birmingham, AL - South Region - 1st Round

Streaming: CBS

West Virginia -2 over Maryland

Thursday - 12:15 PM EST. When thinking of Cinderella teams, an established program like West Virginia isn’t usually considered as such but going by seeding, they are a Cinderella for 2023. By the numbers, the Mountaineers are one of the more under-seeded teams in the field. KenPom has them as the 17th best team in America while BartTorvik has them 19th.

The reason for the discrepancy in how the advanced metrics see WVU and how the committee saw them comes down to close losses -- results that can be heavily dependent on luck. And by KenPom's Luck rating, the Mountain Mamas check in 299th, making them one of the nation's unluckiest teams (5th-unluckiest squad in the tourney).

While West Virginia is fully capable of making a run, the committee put them in a tough spot. In the first round, the Mountaineers will play a Maryland squad that ranks 22nd on KenPom. It's a very strong 8/9 game. If they win that, WVU will likely run into Alabama, the big dance's overall top seed.

But West Virginia has shown it can play with the country's best, and it did just that at the tail end of the campaign. Prior to being thumped by Kansas in the Big 12 Tournament, the Mountaineers closed the regular season with a two-point loss at Kansas followed by wins over Iowa State and Kansas State. Maryland played the 281st non-conference Strength of Schedule and lost four of its final seven games. Two of the Terps last three wins were against Minnesota, by far the worst team in the BIG. The Terps are not in good form coming in while the Mountaineers are maybe the most underseeded team in the tourney.

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