Texas A&M (9) vs. Nebraska (8) Bracket Prediction: March Madness Odds
It’s not often that an athletic director is a big storyline of an NCAA Tournament game, but that is the case Friday from Memphis in first-round South Region action as No. 9 Texas A&M of the SEC faces No. 8 Nebraska of the Big Ten. The Huskers are 1.5-point favourites on the college basketball odds.
Texas A&M vs. Nebraska NCAA Tournament Point Spread and Betting
The interesting storyline here is new Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts … who was hired away from the same job very recently at his alma mater Nebraska, where he once was a spectacular linebacker for the football team. “Well this will be fun…” Alberts wrote on X (formerly Twitter), along with a sweating emoji, before congratulating Huskers coach Fred Hoiberg and Aggies counterpart Buzz Williams on reaching March Madness. Rather crazily, Nebraska and Texas A&M also are meeting in the first round of the women’s tournament.
Texas A&M will be making its 16th overall appearance in the NCAA Tournament, and the Aggies hold a 13-16 record in the Big Dance. They are making back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in more than a decade. Last year, A&M was a No. 7 seed and lost in Round 1 to Big Ten school Penn State. To win the South, the Aggies are +5500.
Nebraska is in the Dance for the eighth time in school history and the first since the 2013-14 season. The Huskers’ No. 8 seed is the highest since 1994, as they look for their first tourney win in school history. Only the 1991 (No. 3 seed) and 1994 (No. 6 seed) teams received higher seeds. Nebraska is +2500 to win the South.
Texas A&M Aggies
After a loss at South Carolina on Feb. 28, Texas A&M was on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble at 15-13 overall and 6-9 in the SEC but then the Aggies won their next five games, including an upset of Kentucky in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals, before losing to Florida in the semifinals. Coach Buzz Williams holds a 10-9 personal record in the Dance as he also took Marquette and Virginia Tech there. Guard Wade Taylor IV was named first-team All-SEC after leading the team in scoring, assists, steals, 3-pointers and free throws in the regular season. He was the second player in school history to score at least 500 points along with a minimum of 100 rebounds, 100 assists and 50 steals in a season, joining Don Marbury in 1985-86. The Aggies did play one Big Ten school this season, beating Penn State by 12 in a Thanksgiving tournament. The Nittany Lions played Nebraska once as well and were routed 68-49 on the road.
Nebraska Cornhuskers
The Cornhuskers’ 23 wins this season under Big Ten Coach of the Year Fred Hoiberg are the second-most in school history. This will be the fifth time that Hoiberg has taken a team to the NCAA Tournament, as he guided Iowa State to four straight appearances between 2012-2015. All-Big Ten pick and senior guard Keisei Tominaga leads Nebraska in scoring at 14.9 points per game and has a team-high 71 3-pointers. As a team, the Huskers average 77.6 points per game to rank fourth in the Big Ten and it’s NU’s highest scoring average since the 1995-96 season. It also leads the Big Ten in made 3-pointers per game at 9.5 and set the school mark with 312 3-pointers overall. Nebraska and Texas A&M were both former members of the Big 12 with the Cornhuskers holding a 12-8 advantage in the all-time series. The most recent meeting was in 2011 with the Cornhuskers tallying a 57-48 home win.
TAM
NEB