Morning Madness: Thursday, March 9

Here's what you need to know in college hoops for Thursday, March 9.

Three is a magic number. It's also the number of days left until Selection Sunday.

We're not freaking out. You're freaking out.

The Buck starts here

Bucknell took down Lehigh 81-65 in the Patriot League championship to secure its spot in the NCAA tournament for the seventh time in school history and the first time since 2013.

That makes 12 automatic bids locked down, with 20 to go. 

The Patriot League final was the sole conference championship Wednesday night, but there was plenty of action elsewhere, including the ACC tournament, where ...

Wake Forest's Greg McClinton hit his first career three on a full-court buzzer-beater

How? How is this possible? Wake lost the game, but it managed to lock down the best bucket of the ACC tournament. This man hit this shot:

And he didn't even bank it in! Sheesh. Pretty impressive way to knock down the first three of your career.

The Big East tournament plays in the Big Apple

And with it comes a lot of questions: Can Xavier turn things around? Will Seton Hall keep up its momentum? Will Villanova win more games in MSG this year than the Knicks?

Who knows? NCAA.com's Joe Boozell previews the tournament and takes a look back at some of the best highlights from Big East tournaments past.

Tournaments, sure; title games, not so much

For your viewing pleasure tonight, there are no championship games, but quite a few tournament games, highlighted by No. 14 Duke vs. No. 10 Louisville in the ACC quarterfinals (2 ET, ESPN).

We're keeping track of all the tickets being punched and your full conference tournament schedule.

Wednesday scoreboard

Thursday schedule

Speaking of those automatic qualifiers ...

Four will end up drawing the unluckiest of straws on Sunday -- the 16 seed.

It's well-documented that no 16 seed has ever beaten a 1 seed. Not once in 128 tries. 

But we noticed a trend in our Bracket Challenge Game over the past six years. More and more bracket players are picking 16 seeds. So we wondered: Why? Have those games been getting closer?

No. They have not. Looking at the history of the most one-sided matchup in sports does give us some interesting information. Like the fact that no 1 vs. 16 has been decided by one possession since 1996. That's longer than most of the 2017 tournament's players have been alive. 

Check out the history of the 1 vs. 16 game.

And explore why the 16 vs. 1 upset picks are increasing.

On teams that have, you know, actually won a game

There are quite a few schools -- 172 to be exact -- who, unlike 16 seeds actually have won an NCAA tournament game. Surprisingly, some have won more than others.

Of the 290 teams to have played in the NCAA tournament since 1985, 60 have won at least 10 tournament games. Think you can name all of them? Test your brain might with our quiz (we promise it's not as hard as the last one).

Mark your calendar

Selection Sunday: March 12
First Four in Dayton: March 14, 15
First Thursday of the NCAA tournament: March 16
Final Four in Phoenix: April 1-3

FULL MARCH MADNESS SCHEDULE | TICKETS | SHOP