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Part II of a multi-part series breaking down this year’s Madness.
Part I | Part II (East) | Part III (Midwest) 
EAST REGIONAL | Team | Record | Conference | Team | Record | Conference | | #1 North Carolina | 32-2 | ACC | #16 Coppin State / Mt. St. Mary’s | 16-20 / 18-14 | MEAC / Northeast | | #8 Indiana | 25-7 | Big Ten | #9 Arkansas | 22-11 | SEC | | #5 Notre Dame | 24-7 | Big East | #12 George Mason | 23-10 | Colonial Athletic Association | | #4 Washington State | 24-8 | Pac 10 | #13 Winthrop | 22-10 | Big South | | #6 Oklahoma | 22-11 | Big 12 | #11 St. Joseph | 21-12 | Atlantic 10 | | #3 Louisville | 24-7 | Big East | #14 Boise State | 25-8 | WAC | | #7 Butler | 29-3 | Horizon League | #10 South Alabama |
| Sun Belt | | #2 Tennessee | 29-4 | SEC | #15 American | 21-11 | Patriot League | Lets start with the region with the top seed, North Carolina. Fortunately for the Tar Heels, they do not have to travel far from home playing only 20 miles from Chapel Hill. This in addition to the fact that the #1 seed has never lost a first round game, it does not bode well for Coppin State/ Mt. St. Mary’s. But here at NittanyWhiteOut we care little about the other conferences, especially the SEC so we’ll focus mainly on Indiana.
| Seed Favorites | Seed Underdogs | | ACC | North Carolina |
| | BIG 12 | Oklahoma |
| | BIG EAST | Notre Dame, Louisville |
| | BIG TEN | Indiana |
| | PAC 10 | Washington State |
| | SEC | Tennessee | Arkansas | | mid majors | Butler | Coppin State/Mt. St. Mary’s, George Mason, Winthrop, St. Joseph, Boise State, South Alabama, American | 
Indiana will struggle just to get past its opening game with Arkansas who reached the SEC tournament final falling to eventual champion Georgia. Indiana lost to Penn State and Minnesota (middle of the pack Big Ten teams) entering the tournament. Though Indiana’s record and RPI are much stronger than Arkansas, don’t let those stats fool you. Since Kelvin Sanctions departure, Indiana posted a 3-3 record losing to Penn State and Minnesota to close out the regular season. Indiana’s record against teams in the RPI top-50? 3-5 which does not bode well for Hoosier fans considering Arkansas is sitting at #32 in the RPI.
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|  |  | | Record | overall | 25-7 | 22-11 |
| conference | 14-5 | 11-8 |
| against
tournament
teams | 4-5 | 6-6 | | Resume | RPI | 23 | 32 |
| SOS | 59 | 25 |
| percent | 75.0 | 73.3 | Team Stats
per game | Points | 75.1 | 73.6 |
| Turnovers | 13.7 | 15.5 |
| Rebounds | 40.8 | 39.5 |
| Free throw % | 0.763 | 0.672 |
| 3pt % | 0.346 | 0.399 |
| Blocks | 3.8 | 5.3 | As for predictions for this game? Indiana is favored over the Razorbacks by an average of 1.5 and this will be a great 8-9 seed matchup. This Indiana team is good, very good. But they just haven’t been playing the same since the loss of their head coach. If they can simply get past the fact that he won’t be back and theres nothing they can do to bring him back, they will be able to run this Arkansas team out of town. More detailed breakdown of the matchup at The Hoosier Report for those interested. I will be rooting for the Big Ten teams to reach the Final Four. The committee made it just that much easier since they placed 1 Big Ten team in each region. So here’s to taking the first step and predicting a Hoosier victory over the Razorbacks. We’ll talk about the matchup with the Tar Heels when we cross that bridge. 
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