When you consider the circumstances, the betting odds for Friday’s first-round NCAA Tournament matchup between seven-seed Ohio State and 10-seed Loyola-Chicago makes sense. The Buckeyes are the higher-seeded team, coming out of a bigger, tougher conference, and have a more impressive resume heading into March. However, they’ve lost four of their last five games and the optimism from the fanbase has dissolved into pure cynicism.
The Ramblers are one of the nation’s elite defensive teams, just made light work of their conference tournament, and have made it to the Sweet Sixteen (or better) twice in the last four seasons.