Expert Picks & Predictions for EVERY game in the First Round of the Tournament | 2025 March Madness - video Dailymotion

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Tim Doyle joins CBS Sports HQ to make his picks for every First round game in the 2025 NCAA tournament.   (00:00:00) Creighton vs. Louisville (00:01:30) High Point vs. Purdue (00:02:00) Montana vs. Wisconsin (00:02:30) SIUE vs. Houston (00:03:11) McNeese vs. Clemson (00:04:05) VCU vs. BYU (00:04:39) Georgia vs. Gonzaga (00:05:15) Wofford v. Tennessee (00:05:57) Arkansas vs. Kansas (00:06:34) Yale vs. Texas A&M (00:07:19) Drake vs. Missouri (00:08:35) Utah State vs. UCLA (00:09:08) Omaha vs. St. John's (00:10:01) UC San Diego vs. Michigan (00:10:58) UNCW vs. Texas Tech (00:11:23) Baylor vs. Mississippi State (00:11:48) Robert Morris vs. Alabama (00:12:01) Lipscomb vs. Iowa State (00:12:29) Colorado State vs. Memphis (00:13:06) Vanderbilt vs. Saint Mary's (00:13:56) Grand Canyon vs. Maryland (00:14:21) Norfolk State vs. Florida (00:14:55) Troy vs. Kentucky (00:15:22) New Mexico vs. Marquette (00:15:36) Akron vs. Arizona (00:16:01) Oklahoma vs. UCONN (00:16:18) Bryant vs. Michigan State (00:16:46) Liberty vs. Oregon  SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/user/CBSSports  WATCH CBS Sports HQ: https://www.cbssports.com/live/ Paramount Plus: https://www.paramountplus.com   FOLLOW US ON: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/CBSSports/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cbssports/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/CBSSports  #marchmadness #cbb #collegebasketball

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00:00All right. Welcome back to HQ folks. St. Patrick's Day and Chicago River once again

00:05glowing green. What do you think is more fun Chicago St. Paddy's Day or

00:09Boston St. Paddy's Day? You know I haven't experienced either so I know what you're

00:13going to say though. Southie knows how to throw a party. But we have to have the Chicago

00:18representation in and Tim Doyle is the perfect guy to join us for that. Quick thing before we

00:22get to all the games and we don't have a lot of time. Tim, Chicago St. Paddy's Day is what?

00:26It starts early, ends early. Which I don't mind because I'm getting older,

00:31Tommy. You get an early start, you get to bed a little bit earlier.

00:33Yes, you believe that.

00:34I am down with the start early, end early. All right. We got to get rolling on these

00:38games because we are going to cover every game in the first round. So Tim,

00:42get ready to talk a lot. We're going to roll through these. We're going to start off

00:46with Creighton and Louisville. So this matchup, what do you like in it?

00:50Let's just get the ball rolling here.

00:52I think if this game wasn't in Kentucky, I think I'd more than likely pick Creighton.

00:58This game is in Kentucky. This is crazy to me. First of all, Louisville got hosed on its seed,

01:04but what a matchup. This is going to be the first game of the day and they're going to have their

01:08home crowd there. I like Louisville here, lay the points in this spot. Creighton's been up and down.

01:13Remember they don't have pops Isaacs. What a great job Pat Kelsey has done. This was a Louisville

01:19team organization, whatever you want to call program. That was an embarrassment. They're

01:23back and they beat Creighton. Let's get to high point Purdue. Boilermakers haven't been

01:27playing great basketball, but they're laying eight and a half. Yeah. I'm picking Purdue to win this

01:31game. Now, you know, I have them advancing. I get it. You lay eight and a half. Anything could

01:36happen late. A high point. Congratulations to them. High point as a steakhouse on its campus.

01:41I mean, talk about bougie. Yeah. It's like very, very bougie. And if my daughter wants to go there,

01:46I'm totally fine with that. I'm going to lay the points here with Purdue. I don't really trust them

01:50as a final 14, but Braden Smith's outstanding. Um, high point also had a great celebration on

01:56our selection show yesterday on CBS. Oh, it's awesome. They were, they were fired up for that

02:00one. Okay. Next up we have Montana going up against Wisconsin, Montana, your big sky champs.

02:05What do you think? You know, Montana played some good teams in non-conference and they just got

02:10the doors blown off. Okay. And I expect that in this, you know, this is a big number for Wisconsin.

02:15I'll tell you this right now. If they shoot the way they shot against Michigan in the big 10

02:20conference championship game, uh, they may be in for an absolute dog fight, but I'm going to lay

02:25the points here at Wisconsin. I found the grizzly. You just put everybody on Tonje. Don't let them

02:28beat you. Maybe Blackwell too. All right. Uh, SIU Edwardsville and Houston, 28 and a half points

02:34spread Tim Doyle. Yeah. This is what happens. You just go like this and you say SIUE SIUE SIUE.

02:40I feel like that's like, if a police officer pulls you over and they like say the alphabet

02:45I never, I can't even say it backwards when I'm sober. Like you say it backwards. I don't know it.

02:49SIUE a great story here. First bid for division one, Brian Barone. His dad was a legendary college

02:56coach. They got a really good player. Ray Sean Taylor. Uh, I think Houston wins this game by

03:0122. So give me the dog here. Uh, E U I S that's it. I got you Tim. Don't worry. We got you covered

03:09smart. Jenny Dale. Oh, so smart. So fast. All right. Next up we got McNeese and Clemson for

03:13those who don't know McNeese, they were the Southland champs. I feel like there's some teams

03:17out here that the, who, where are they from? Where do they play? Go on Tim. They played 20

03:23conference games in the Southland, 19 and one. I like McNeese in this game. Plus the points. I

03:28actually liked them on the money line as well. Clemson's had a great second half of the season.

03:33The hammer is out. Yes, it is. Wow. I got my own little hammer graphic there. Um,

03:38McNeese got veterans. They also have a great coach and Will Wade. So they check a lot of boxes.

03:43They have experience in the non-conference. They took Alabama down to the wire. They took

03:48Mississippi state down to the wire. And like I said, this is just too many points. I think this

03:53spread should be like three, two and a half Clemson deserves to be favorite, but I'm picking

03:57a very popular 12, five upset here. Yep. Well, Wade facing, uh, he was an alum of Clemson by the

04:03way. So one way doing some good things with the Cowboys. All right. VCU, BYU, Tim, they say in

04:07boxing styles, make fights. This one could be heavyweight potential. Yeah, this is another

04:13alphabet game, right? It's like a UCV and a UYB. Um, I like VCU in this game. I know Adam Finkelstein

04:21was just out here pumping them. You know what they have? They have their top three returning

04:25starters came back from last year. They have the eight, 10 player of the year. They have a coach

04:30and Ryan Odom that's already won a big game when UMBC knocked off Virginia. I like VCU here and I

04:35actually like VCU to win multiple games in this dance. Next up, we got Georgia going up against

04:41the Zags. The Gonzaga has not been an underdog all season long. They're not one again, still

04:46favored in this one. What do you think? I think you're paying a premium for the name here, Jenny.

04:50I think with all the transferring and teams kind of changing, I think you see Gonzaga and you're

04:55like, Oh, they're going to the sweet 16. I think this game should be like two and a half, three.

04:59I'll take Georgia here. They obviously won some big games in the SEC, but this is more about

05:04picking against Gonzaga. Which Gonzaga team are you going to get? Are you going to get the team

05:07that lost to St. Mary's twice or the team that turned it on and beat them in the WCC final?

05:11They're just a hard team to trust. Can't lay points. Give me the dog. All right. Wofford in

05:15Tennessee, a 15-2. Do you want to lay it? Do you grab it? What's the take here? Yeah. Wofford's

05:21like the fake school that you go to when you were trying to get out of a conversation. We all had

05:24names as well. I, my alias, Jenny was always Frank strawberry. Jenny, did you have an alias

05:31when you don't want to say, but I'm not even going to tell you it. Oh, wow. That was, that's

05:36really, really dark. Okay. Give me a Tennessee in this spot, lay the points. They've had games

05:42this year in Tennessee where they score like 44 points and you're like, what are they doing out

05:46there? But this is a squad that made the SEC championship game. Their offense can be inconsistent

05:52at times. You know, you lay 18 and a half, anything could happen. They're not losing this

05:55game. So I'll lay the points. Our next game is two of the top coaches to ever coach the sport.

06:01We got Arkansas and Kansas. What are your thoughts on this one, Tim? Yeah. I mean,

06:06Kansas, they were number one in the country, Jenny, to start the season for the first month.

06:11And now like, I don't know, what are you going to get from them? Should they be favored here?

06:15Probably five and a half is nuts in my eyes. Now, Boogie Fland is Arkansas star freshmen.

06:20He's coming back. You think that would be a good thing, right? In the SEC games that Boogie

06:25Fland played, this is how many Arkansas won, zero. But this is just, this is a game that goes right

06:31down to the wire. The points are the difference. Give me Arkansas. All right. Yale and Texas A&M

06:35in a seven half point spread. James Jones, what a fantastic job he's done there. You taking the

06:39nerds in this one, Tim? And I'll say this. Yes, I'll take the nerds. I'll take it one step further.

06:44They're going to win this game. And this will be the last year an Ivy league school wins a game in

06:49the tournament with the current NIL environment. Now, what I like about Yale is they have two

06:55senior guards that are both pros in my eyes, NBA close, John Paul Aquinas and M bank. And then

07:03they have another big guy down low, Nate Townsend. Let's not forget. They lost their best player.

07:06Danny Wolf left Yale. They beat Auburn last year. They're not scared of that. I was scared. I don't

07:13think Yale guys are scared of this moment. Can we yell here? Plus the points and yell on the money

07:18line. All right. Next up, we have Drake, Missouri. We were just talking about Cinderella stories. Do

07:22you like Drake to make a little Cinderella run? I don't like Drake. I love the Drake. I need the

07:29Drake. I adore the Drake. Okay. The Drake. That's right. The hammer is out here. Give me Drake plus

07:35the points and give me Drake Drake on the money line. They have a coach that came over from

07:40division two, Ben McCollum, that right now guys can get any job he wants. What did he do when he

07:45took the job at Drake? He took his two best players with him and he has a guy who's going to

07:50be the best player on the floor. That's right. Division two player from last year's team is

07:54going to be a best player on the floor. Learn his name because he's going to take over the tournament.

07:58His name is Bennett Sturtz. He's a six, five point guard. And Jenny, you know, this Tommy,

08:05you know, this too. Now that you have a baby, I got a babysitter to go into Chicago to watch Drake

08:11play. Cause I needed to watch them on my own eyes. I only watched a half and then my wife and

08:15I went out and we got martinis stuffed with blue cheese, olives, always dirty, but I watched them

08:20for a half and I said, Oh, that is a very dangerous NCA team. They're in the tournament and Missouri

08:25is in for a doozy here. Yeah. Drake, one of the six teams, I think with 30 wins in division one

08:30and great tips from, uh, Tim Doyle and date night there. Yes. Do that. Always getting dirty. Uh,

08:35Utah state UCLA with a four and a half point spread. I like UCLA on the money line. And the

08:40only reason I liked them in this game is because Mick Cronin is such an amazing coach that if this

08:46was actually the second game of the weekend, I would like Utah state. But the fact that he has

08:51all week to prepare, I like UCLA here on the money line. I'm not going to lay points at UCLA

08:56because they've been so erratic with the traveling and so on. But I saw them up close and personal

09:02on Northwestern. I was like, well, wow, that was an impressive win on the road. It was senior night

09:05for Northwestern. Give me UCLA on the money line. We got Rick Patino and St. John's going up

09:11against Omaha, not an easy matchup for them out there. What do you think? You know, I saw Omaha,

09:16I called their summit league championship game and I thought they could put kind of a scare into

09:21it too. This is the wrong two to put a scare into. I'm going to take over this game. I think St.

09:27John's could score a hundred. I'm not kidding. And I know St. John's is challenged offensively.

09:32Omaha wants to play extremely fast. They get a great story. Their head coach Chris Crutchfield

09:37played football and basketball. He's built this program up. It's awesome that St. John's is in

09:42the tournament. And by the way, I actually think their road is a two because they would see,

09:47let's just say they see Arkansas, maybe Texas tech. Their road is a two is easier than Florida's

09:53road as a one. Florida is going to have to see UConn, Maryland, like they have tougher games in

09:58front of them. So give me over this spot. All right, let's go to UC San Diego and Michigan.

10:03Interestingly enough, Michigan wins the conference tournament title, but there's still a five seat.

10:06It makes you wonder the seating whole thing as for the game, Tim, three and a half of what the

10:10Dusty May led team is laying. Yeah, I love the seating talk. Like I feel like you ever see when

10:16Homer Simpson goes in the bush, they ever see that, that gift. I feel like that's what happens

10:20with Jerry Palm. Like when the season ends, he just like disappears, just like out of the shot.

10:25Like he's just like, why it's out of there. I like UC San Diego here. This is all about

10:31matchup. Michigan's two best players are very tall. Okay. So now what's going to happen is

10:36UC San Diego is going to play five out on the perimeter. Now, if they shoot six of 35 from three,

10:41they're going to get their doors blown off. But if they make 12 threes, 13 threes of Michigan

10:47is scrambling with Vlad golden and Danny Wolf. They're going to be in trouble in this game.

10:52I think UC San Diego not only covers UC San Diego wins is a bad draw for Michigan.

10:57Bad draw. We're looking at the CAA champions next and UNC Wilmington going up against Texas tech,

11:03Tim. Yeah. UNC Wilmington beat Delaware. Hi, I'm in Delaware. It's from Wayne's world to win the,

11:10the, the coastal, the CAA, whatever you want to call that conference. I think they're going to

11:13get the doors blown off here. Texas text coach is a defensive coach, but he's got some great

11:18offensive players led by JT top. And I think they win this game by 20, lay the points here with the

11:22red Raiders back here on CBS sports HQ, Tommy Tran, Jenny Dell, Tim Doyle. We just talked about

11:27all the Thursday games going to hit the Friday games. Now we're getting in seven minutes. Let's

11:30go. Let's go Baylor, Mississippi state, Tim, your thoughts. Yeah. Coin flip game. Uh, I like Baylor.

11:37They have the best player on the floor. That's VJ edge. Come. He's going to end up being a top

11:41five pick Baylor's NIL budget was $6 million. I think that buys them at least one win here.

11:48All right. Robert Morris in Alabama, 22 and a half points spread. I think Alabama could score

11:53106 points here. So give me over here. We know one thing about Alabama. They can score. They've

11:58scored multiple games at a hundred points over this mark. All right. We're rolling on lips come

12:02and Iowa state, a 13 and a half point spread there. I like Iowa state, but what I didn't like

12:10was they went Manti tails, girlfriend. They said Keyshawn Gilbert was healthy. And then all of a

12:15sudden Keyshawn was not healthy. So they ended up getting a three seed. I thought Iowa state

12:20catfish the NCAA, but I guess that's not catfishing. They just didn't tell him that the

12:25guy wasn't healthy. So I'm going to lay the points here, go cyclones. So we've got a couple of

12:29conference champs, 12 V five. We all love our 12 V fives, Tim, but Colorado state laying the two and

12:35a half against Memphis. Yeah. Doesn't it feel like it's giving you the creepy voice? Like, come on,

12:40just take Colorado state, right? Like, uh, they've won 10 straight. I get why they're favorite,

12:46but I don't think anybody watches Memphis because they're in like that obscure American conference.

12:50And like, there's not a lot of fanfare Colorado state's been great. Their coach is going to get

12:54a head coaching job, Niko Medved, but I've actually watched Memphis. They got some dogs.

12:59They got a great backcourt. They have the best player in the game and PJ Haggerty,

13:02him and Nick Clifford. I like Memphis here. All right. Vanderbilt and St. Mary's.

13:09I was just at St. Mary's and Tommy and I were texting during that game.

13:14I don't think, you know, it's weird when Tommy texts me after 10 is sometimes my wife goes,

13:20who's that texting you? I go, Tommy from CBS should really Tommy from sports. What's he wearing? I go,

13:28give me a St. Mary's in this game on the money line. I love Mitchell Saxon down low Augustus

13:34Marcellonis, not Augustus. Augustus is a big time guard. He's WCC player of the year.

13:40I'm not laying four and a half because they're challenged to score. So give me

13:43St. Mary's on the money line. Do you wear suits to bed after 10 PM?

13:48Sometimes if I fall asleep or watching late night CBS sports network games, it's happened before.

13:54I'm not going to lie. Grand Canyon, GCU and Maryland. You've got tournament legend Bryce

14:00Drew on one side and the crab five on the other here. So 11 and a half point spread, Timmy.

14:05Man, I love Maryland. I think they got hosed with their draw because they're going to see

14:10Memphis. They're going to see Florida. I think they win this game by double digits. I love Derek

14:15Queen. I actually love everything about Maryland. I think they can be a kind of a sexy final four

14:19pick. So give me them in this spot. Florida 28 and a half point favorites over Norfolk state.

14:25That's a tough one. Yeah. I mean the biggest thing and I have Florida winning it all by the

14:30way. The biggest thing I like about them is they're a hundred percent healthy. You know,

14:36they have three guards that are all veterans that all started at different places and then they have

14:40an NBA top 10 guy, Alex Condon. So I think they can win this game by 40. I think they can win

14:46this game by 30, just a matter of how much they want to win it by this. In my eyes, the best team

14:50in college basketball as of this show. That path will not be easy though. How about Troy and

14:56Kentucky with UK lane 10 and a hook? Yeah, I'm drinking the Kentucky Kool-Aid. They had six guys

15:02averaging double figures at one point. Their X factor is going to be Lamont Butler. If he's going

15:06to be out on the floor, he's such a great floor general. Remember he made that shot for San Diego

15:10state a couple of years ago. I think Mark Pope's team is super fun to watch. I think they win this

15:15game 10 and a half is kind of aggressive. So, but you can only bet them or you can't bet the game.

15:20Five games, three minutes left. Tim Doyle, we got New Mexico versus Marquette.

15:24Yeah, Marquette was hot and they're cold. They went Katy Perry on me. I like New Mexico here.

15:29Donovan Dent's an electrifying guard. They got Nellie Jr. Joseph down low. I like New Mexico

15:34here on the money line. I like them plus the points. Which A program, Akron or Arizona first

15:38round? Oh, the A's. I think this game should be like seven. I cannot believe this is 13 and a half.

15:44Arizona, they're like, if they have the good filter on, they look skinny. They look athletic.

15:49If they have the bad filter on, they look overweight, out of shape. You don't know where

15:53you're going to get there. Give me Akron plus the points. John Gross is an amazing

15:57Mac level coach. I think his team puts a huge scare into Arizona.

16:01All right. We got Oklahoma and UConn, an eight, nine matchup here. What do you think?

16:06Yeah. Oklahoma got off to a great start. Not so much in conference. I don't know. You pick against

16:11UConn this time of year, you're kind of asking for it. I'll take UConn on the money line. I

16:15think they just figure out a way to win. Two more to go. Brian and Sparty. What do we like?

16:23It's so funny. I have Michigan State going to the final four. I think they have an amazing path.

16:28I have Michigan State here minus the points. They're going to win this game. Brian can score.

16:33They won all their conference tournament games by double digits. So I think this game could be one

16:38of those games that Brian leads early and Michigan State imposes its will late in the game. I have

16:42Michigan State going far, so I'm going to pick them here. All right. Another 12-5 matchup here.

16:47Liberty, Liberty, Liberty going up against Oregon. Yeah. Liberty played a fantastic non-conference

16:53season. Oregon's been super up and down. You don't know what you're going to get for them.

16:58I like Liberty here plus the points. I actually have Liberty winning this game. I have Liberty,

17:02Akron in the next round, which Duke fans are just going to be thrilled about because they're

17:06going to get the winner in that game. There's so many teams. Oregon's one of them. They fall

17:11into the Illinois category. You don't know what you're going to get. Are we going to get good

17:15ducks? Are we going to get quack, quack, quack? Are we going to get bad ducks? I don't know which

17:19ducks are going to show up. Are you going to give me Liberty and the points? What does a bad duck

17:22sound like? Tim, bad duck? Quack, quack. I don't know. That's like his quack after a couple of

17:31martinis. All right, Tim Doyle, we're out of time. We got it all done, my friend. Great job. That was

17:36awesome. That was really cool. Was out a couple of times at the very least with us here today.

17:41Appreciate you, Timmy. Thank you, Tim. All right, it's bracket time. Get your brackets in now on

17:47CBS Sports. You can play in a pool with friends, join our men's and women's challenges, your chance

17:52to win a new SUV, a trip to the 2026 Final Four. Get the CBS Sports app or visit cbssports.com

17:58slash brackets to play now.

Expert Picks & Predictions for EVERY game in the First Round of the Tournament | 2025 March Madness

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