The 2011 NCAA Tournament begins tonight with the first two of the inaugural "First Four" games. The First Four was created to allow the tournament to include 68 teams instead of 65. Tonights games feature UNC-Asheville and Arkansas-Little Rock facing off for the 16 seed in the southeast region and Clemson taking on UAB for the 12 seed in the east region.
Since most bracket pools out there don't include these first four games, many of you out there are asking who is going to win tonight and what are their chances once they join the final 64. That's where here to help.
#16 UNC-Asheville Bulldogs vs #16 Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans, 4:30 p.m., truTV
UNC-Asheville -4
Who's going to win? SB Nation's Chris Dobbertean sees the favorites coming out on top with UNC-Asheville sending the Sun Belt conference champions home early.
What's next for the winner? UNC-Asheville would face #1 seed Pittsburgh, generally considered to be the weakest #1 of the four. But that doesn't mean the Bulldogs stand a chance here. No 16 seed has ever beaten a 1 seed and it isn't going to change this year.
#12 Clemson Tigers vs #12 UAB Blazers, 7:00 p.m., truTV
Clemson -4.5
Who's going to win? Dobbertean has Clemson taking out UAB handily, an outcome that will only fuel the fires that the Blazers shouldn't have received an invite to the tourney.
What's next for the winner? This one is a little harder to project as the 5, 12 games produce some very memorable upsets almost every single year. Clemson would face West Virginia, a final four team last year that struggled a bit towards a seventh place Big East finish. Clemson played a lot of very good teams close this season, but could never get over the hump to get even a single win over a top 50 team. This is game that they could win, but with Kentucky and Ohio State potentially lying in wait, they won't be getting any further than the third round at best.