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The Duke Blue Devils have one of the biggest stars in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Freshman Cooper Flagg is expected to be the top pick in the 2025 NBA Draft and will enter March Madness 2025 averaging 18.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game. Flagg suffered a sprained ankle in the ACC Tournament, but the Blue Devils still went on to win the championship, marking the first time since 2006 that Duke won the regular-season ACC title and the conference tournament in the same season.

Duke, the No. 1 seed in the East Region of the 2025 NCAA Tournament bracket, opens its 2025 NCAA Tournament on Friday in Raleigh. Can Flagg and the Blue Devils make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament bracket 2025 or will Duke be ousted early from the 2025 March Madness bracket? Before making any 2025 March Madness bracket predictions, be sure to check out the 2025 NCAA Tournament bracket picks from the proven computer model at SportsLine.

Their proven projection model has simulated every game in the tournament 10,000 times. It has absolutely crushed its March Madness picks recently, beating over 91 percent of all CBS Sports brackets in four of the past six tournaments. It was all over UConn's championship run a year ago and nailed 13 teams in the Sweet 16. It also nailed Alabama's Cinderella run to the Final Four as a 4-seed.

It knows how to spot an upset as well. The same model has produced brackets that have nailed 24 first-round upsets by double-digit seeds since its inception in 2016. There's simply no reason to rely on luck when there's proven technology to help you dominate your 2025 March Madness bracket picks. 

Now, with the 2025 NCAA bracket revealed, the model is simulating the matchups and its results are in. You can only see it over at SportsLine.

Three 2025 March Madness bracket games to watch

One of the most intriguing 2025 March Madness matchups to watch: No. 5 Michigan vs. No. 12 UC San Diego in the South region. The Wolverines will have the distinct size advantage in the matchup with Vladislav Goldin and Danny Wolf both standing at least 7'0". Goldin leads the Wolverines with 16.7 points and 1.4 blocks per game, while Wolf ranks first with an average of 9.8 rebounds. UC San Diego hasn't lost a game since Jan. 19, entering March Madness on the heels of a 15-game winning streak. The Tritons are led by Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, who was named the Big West Player of the Year after averaging 19.7 points per game.

Another 2025 NCAA Tournament matchup to keep an eye on is No. 8 Louisville vs. No. 9 Creighton in the South Region. Louisville is led by Chucky Hepburn, who was an all-ACC first team selection after averaging 16.2 points per game. The Cardinals are a well-balanced team with five players averaging at least 12.0 points per game. Creighton is led by Ryan Kalkbrenner, who joined Patrick Ewing as the only other player to win the Big East Defensive Player of the Year four times. Kalkbrenner is also effective on the offensive end of the floor, scoring 19.4 points per game. He ranks fourth in the nation in field goal percentage (65.5%).

Another 2025 March Madness game to watch out for: No. 4 seed Texas A&M will battle No. 13 seed Yale in the South Region. The Aggies are the top offensive rebounding team in the nation, averaging 16.19 offensive rebounds per game. Texas A&M posted an 11-7 record in SEC play and secured several impressive non-conference wins this season, beating the likes of Purdue, Texas Tech and Creighton. Yale, meanwhile, features one of the nation's most explosive offenses. The Bulldogs are averaging 81.4 points per game, which ranks 23rd in college basketball. Yale beat Auburn in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last year, making this a game to circle when locking in your March Madness bracket picks. You can see the model's 2025 NCAA bracket picks here.

How to make 2025 NCAA bracket predictions

Who wins every tournament-defining matchup? And which teams will make surprising runs through the 2025 NCAA Tournament bracket? With the model's track record of calling bracket-busting upsets, you'll want to see which stunners it's calling this year before locking in any 2025 NCAA bracket picks.

So what's the optimal NCAA Tournament 2025 bracket? And which NCAA Tournament Cinderella teams will shock college basketball? Visit SportsLine now to see which double-digit seeds you can back with confidence, all from the model that called UConn's national title and nailed 13 Sweet 16 teams in 2024.