It’s the best couple of days in the college basketball year: the first round of the NCAA tournament, when the field of 64 becomes a field of 32, thanks to 32 games over two days. The second half of those 32 games is on Friday, with games starting around lunchtime on the East Coast and staying on your TV until around midnight.
Watch NCAA tournament online: How to live-stream Friday’s March Madness games
The first round continues with 16 Friday games.
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Some of the games figure to be really good ones. It’s impossible to know which games will have the highest drama, but the sample size of 16 games on Friday makes it almost a certainty that a few of them will come down to the wire. At least one or two genuine upsets are likely to happen, too — like they do on these days every year.
Some games that look really interesting: Michigan-Oklahoma State, which will feature almost no defense but two explosive offenses; Dayton-Wichita State, a battle of two mid-majors who’ve found plenty of tournament success under Archie Miller and Gregg Marshall; and Creighton-Rhode Island, which might bring an upset opportunity for the Rams. Plus, there’ll be a few others that turn out great, because there always are.
The tournament games on Friday are at the regional sites in Sacramento, Indianapolis, Tulsa, Okla., and Greenville, S.C. The winners will play second-round games on Sunday. Those winners will advance to the Sweet Sixteen at the tournament’s regional sites: New York in the East, Memphis in the South, Kansas City in the Midwest, and San Jose in the West. The Final Four, a week after the regionals, is in Glendale, Ariz.
You can download a printable bracket here and follow our live, updating bracket here.
Here’s the complete schedule for Friday’s games (all times Eastern).
NCAA.com is the streaming site for every game in the tournament. The television channels for each game are listed along side them on this schedule:
Michigan vs. Oklahoma State: 12:15, CBS (Indianapolis)
Baylor vs. New Mexico State: 12:40 p.m., TruTV (Tulsa)
Arkansas vs. Seton Hall: 1:30 p.m., TNT (Greenville)
Oregon vs. Iona: 2 p.m., TBS (Sacramento)
Louisville vs. Jacksonville State: approx. 2:45 p.m., CBS (Indianapolis)
SMU vs. Providence: approx. 3:10 p.m., TruTV (Tulsa)
North Carolina vs. Texas Southern: approx. 4 p.m., TNT (Greenville)
Creighton vs. Rhode Island: approx. 4:30 p.m., TBS (Sacramento)
Kansas vs. UC Davis: 6:50 p.m., TNT (Tulsa)
Dayton vs. Wichita State: 7:10 p.m., CBS (Indianapolis)
Duke vs. Troy: 7:20 p.m., TBS (Greenville)
Cincinnati vs. Kansas State: 7:27 p.m., TruTV (Sacramento)
Miami vs. Michigan State: approx. 9:20 p.m., TNT (Tulsa)
Kentucky vs. Northern Kentucky: approx. 9:40 p.m., CBS (Indianapolis)
South Carolina vs. Marquette: approx. 9:50 p.m., TBS (Greenville)
UCLA vs. Kent State: approx. 9:57 p.m., TruTV (Sacramento)
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