No. 7 USC vs. No. 10 Miami preview for March Madness first-round matchup

The NCAA Tournament begins on Tuesday, March 15th with the First Four, and then moves on to the first round on Thursday, March 17 and Friday, March 18. No. 7 seed USC will face No. 10 seed Miami in the first round on Friday. Here’s an early look at what we can expect from the Trojans and Hurricanes in this year’s March Madness Tournament.

Once the odds from DraftKings Sportsbook are made available for this game, we’ll add that information below. We’ll also add the game time and TV channel once it’s settled.

Game date: Friday, March 18th
Game time: 3:10 p.m. ET
TV channel: truTV
Location: Greensville, SC, Bon Secours Wellness Arena

Odds: USC -1.5

No. 7 USC

The Trojans finished with the third-best conference record in the Pac-12. They lost their last two games of the regular season, but at least were able to split the regular season series against UCLA. Forward Isaiah Mobley has been the best player for USC averaging 14.6 points and 8.5 rebounds per game in the regular season.

Record: 26-7, 14-6 Pac-12
KenPom adjusted offensive efficiency: 48
KenPom adjusted defensive efficiency: 49
Against The Spread: 15-18
Over Total: 14-17-2
Odds to win NCAA Championship: +10000

No. 10 Miami

The Hurricanes had an extremely impressive season as they weren’t expected to do that well this season. They finished fourth in the ACC and had some extremely impressive wins in conference play including a road win against Duke. They were great offensively this season and that started with Kameron McGusty (17.4 ppg) and Isaiah Wong (15.4 ppg).

A big reason for their improvements as the season went on was what they did defensively. They had 282 steals this year which ranks 13th in the nation.

Record: 23-10, 14-6 ACC
KenPom adjusted offensive efficiency: 17
KenPom adjusted defensive efficiency: 156
Against The Spread: 18-15-0
Over Total: 20-13
Odds to win NCAA Championship: +15000