5 Ways to Watch the Sweet 16 with No Local Team to Root For

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Thursday, March 26, 2015

Patrick Sargent, GoLocal Worcester Contributor

There are only 16 teams remaining in the NCAA Tournament. For fans from New England, all three teams from the area were out of the tournament by last Friday night.

The Sweet Sixteen starts tonight with #7 Seed Wichita State taking on #3 Seed Notre Dame at 7:15 PM.

GoLocal Worcester has come up with five ways to watch these games and keep you entertained over the next few days.

1. Start a Sweet Sixteen Pool. 

Grab 15 friends. Pick a team out of hat, and cheer on whatever team you get. To keep it interesting, throw a small wager in a winner-take-all format. To keep it fair, determine the winner based on the game’s line from Las Vegas.

For example: If Wichita State is a three point underdog (+3), then whoever has Notre Dame has to win by more than 3. If they don’t, whoever has Wichita State moves on with Notre Dame if they win but don’t cover, or keep Wichita State if the Shockers win outright.

2. Cheer on a local kid. 

Notre Dame has three kids from Massachusetts on its team (Pat Connaughton of Arlington, Zach Auguste of Marlborough, and Bonzie Colson of New Bedford).

3. Root for the Underdogs. 

#11 UCLA versus #2 Gonzaga - UCLA caught flack from every College Basketball analyst in the nation for making this tournament. They said the Bruins had no business here. Well now UCLA has a chip on its shoulder and its in the Sweet Sixteen.

#8 North Carolina State versus #4 Louisville - NC State shocked #1 seed Villanova in the third round to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. In the second round, the Wolfpack barely got by #9 LSU with a shot at the buzzer.

4. Bet on the Odds 

#5 West Virginia is currently getting 13.5 points (-13.5) against #1 Kentucky

#6 Xavier is currently getting 10 points (-10) against #2 Arizona

5. The 3-Point Power Hour 

For those fans that really need to be entertained. Gonzaga, Utah and Notre Dame were all in the top 25 for 3 point field goal percentage in NCAA Division 1.

Gonzaga - #3, 41.0%

Utah - #7, 40.6%

Notre Dame - #25, 38.9% (Notre Dame made more than 100 more attempts than Gonzaga and Utah)

Everytime time someone on these teams attempts a 3-pointer, take a shot of beer. After that, who cares who wins?

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