UC Davis-NC Central, USC-Providence: Times, live TV schedule for March Madness 2017

Tuesday night’s action kicked off the NCAA tournament by adding two teams to the inked-in 64-team bracket. They’ll be joined by two more title hopefuls Wednesday when the First Four reaches its conclusion in Dayton, Ohio.

The first game features 16 seeds in the UC Davis Aggies and NC Central Eagles in a battle to decide who gets to be the fly careening toward the speeding bus known as Kansas. NCCU looks great on paper thanks to its 24-8 record, but that record includes three games against non-Division I competition and just one victory over a team in the RPI top 200 — fellow NCAA tournament participant Northern Kentucky. The Aggies have a few better wins, but their resume tops out with triumphs over Santa Clara and UC-Irvine.

That classic MEAC-Big West showdown will be followed by a rematch from last year’s tournament. The Providence Friars ousted the USC Trojans from the bracket in 2016, winning a tightly contested, 70-69 classic when Rodney Bullock’s go-ahead layup with 1.5 seconds left pushed the Friars to the second round. Bullock will get the chance to repeat his heroics after carrying PC through a potential rebuilding year — the team lost top players Kris Dunn and Ben Bentil last spring — when the two teams meet in Dayton.

The Trojans will counter with a balanced attack whose top four scorers were all on the floor for Bullock’s fateful bucket. Bennie Boatwright, Chimezie Metu, Jordan McLaughlin, and Elijah Stewart will try to extract their revenge by cutting Providence’s season short. USC has only beaten three NCAA tournament participants this season, but two of those victories came over top 15 teams SMU and UCLA.

The winner of that game gets a Friday afternoon showdown with SMU.

Wednesday, March 15 (all times Eastern)

6:40 p.m., TruTV
No. 16 UC Davis vs. No. 16 North Carolina Central

9:10 p.m., TruTV
No. 11 USC vs. No. 11 Providence