Across sports, underdogs win by playing high-risk/high-reward styles. The wider the variation in a team’s scoring, the better its chances to topple a superior foe. In basketball, that means the feistiest underdogs build extra possessions by crashing the offensive boards and forcing turnovers. They launch lots of 3-pointers.

Thursday's March Madness schedule could feature a lot of upsets, according to these picks and predictions for the NCAA Tournament first-round games.