2025 NCAA Tournament Survivor Pool Advice: Round 2 (Sunday)

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Each of our two NCAA Tournament survivor pool picks from Friday (Iowa State and Arizona) helped us advance in our survivor pools easily. But perhaps we should not be doing too much patting ourselves on the back, as this has been one of the least upset-filled tournaments to date.

The second round began with all 16 top-four seeds still playing for just the second time in the last 17 NCAA Tournaments. With a lack of “Cinderellas” left in the field, it makes navigating future NCAA Tournament survivor pool picks that much more difficult.

Throughout the tournament, one has to make eight picks - two from the first round (one for each day played), two from the second round (one for each day played) and one from the Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final Four and National Championship.

Each round, we will provide our analysis broken down by the following categories: Best Picks, Favorites on Upset Alert and Teams That Should be Saved for Later Use.

2025 NCAA Tournament March Madness Bracket Strategy & Betting Picks>>

2025 March Madness Survivor Pool Advice: Round 2 (Sunday)

Here is a list of odds (via DraftKings Sportsbook) for all the favorites to win their second-round matchups on Sunday:

Best Round 2 Survivor Picks for Sunday

(odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook)

This is possibly the last game Maryland will be favored in for the rest of the NCAA Tournament, so it’s time to back the Terrapins while we can. Maryland will be an extremely tough out the rest of the way because few teams can match up with its dominant frontcourt led by Julian Reese and likely NBA lottery pick Derik Queen.

Reese and Queen are not just dominant offensively, as the two were largely responsible for holding Grand Canyon, who was the best two-point shooting team in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) at 55%, to 33% on two-point shots on Friday. That interior defense should come in handy when facing another team that led its conference in two-point shooting percentage, as Colorado State was the Mountain West’s best two-point and free-throw shooting team.

Alabama looked shaky at times against Robert Morris and found itself trailing by one point with under seven minutes to play in the second half. While that gives us cause for concern about the Crimson Tide in the Sweet 16 and beyond, I think Alabama wins the contrast of styles against Saint Mary’s, as the only team the Gaels have faced remotely close to how athletic Alabama is is Gonzaga.

Defense is always going to be a concern for Alabama, who just allowed 80 points for the 11th time since mid-January. But Saint Mary’s is not known to score in bunches, and getting down by double digits to an inferior SEC team in Vanderbilt on Friday does not bode well for its chances of pulling an upset in this round.

Favorites on Upset Alert

Teams That Should Be Saved for Later

Duke and Florida are legitimate National Championship contenders, while Michigan State is better to be saved for its Sweet 16 matchup where it will be favored over a banged-up Iowa State team, or even heavier favorites against Ole Miss out of the SEC.

Mike Spector is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Mike, check out his archive and follow him @MikeSpector01.