The first round of the NCAA tournament concludes Friday with a full slate of 16 games beginning at just past noon, giving us roughly 10 hours of wall-to-wall college basketball action.
NCAA tournament 2018: Time, TV schedule for Friday’s March Madness games
No. 1 Virginia, defending champion North Carolina among Friday’s first-round schedule.
Photo by Ryan M. Kelly/Getty Images
The Virginia Cavaliers were the overall top seed in the 68-team field, and get their tournament started on Friday against No. 16 UMBC (9:20 p.m. ET, TNT). This is Virginia’s first game without freshman guard De’Andre Hunter, the ACC Sixth Man of the Year who will miss the NCAA tournament with a broken wrist.
Defending champion North Carolina begins their title defense as the No. 2 seed out of the West Region, taking on No. 15 Lipscomb on Friday (2:45 p.m. ET, CBS). But the most interesting game out of Charlotte might be No. 10 Providence, seeing if it can ride the momentum of getting to the Big East tournament final into the NCAAs, facing No. 7 Texas A&M in the first game of the day (12:15 p.m. ET, CBS)
The 16 games on Friday will be televised by four different networks — CBS, TNT, TBS, and TruTV. All the first-round action Friday can be streamed online through NCAA March Madness Live. Here are the full list of games (all times ET):
No. 7 Texas A&M vs. No. 10 Providence
Region: West
Location: Spectrum Center, Charlotte
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Channel: CBS
No. 2 Purdue vs. No. 15 Cal State Fullerton
Region: East
Location: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit
Time: 12:40 p.m.
Channel: TruTV
No. 4 Wichita State vs. No. 13 Marshall
Region: East
Location: Viejas Arena, San Diego
Time: 1:30 p.m.
Channel: TNT
No. 2 Cincinnati vs. No. 15 Georgia State
Region: South
Location: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville
Time: 2 p.m.
Channel: TBS
No. 2 North Carolina vs. No. 15 Lipscomb
Region: West
Location: Spectrum Center, Charlotte
Time: 2:45 p.m.*
Channel: CBS
No. 7 Arkansas vs. No. 10 Butler
Region: East
Location: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit
Time: 3:10 p.m.*
Channel: TruTV
No. 5 West Virginia vs. No. 12 Murray State
Region: East
Location: Viejas Arena, San Diego
Time: 4 p.m.*
Channel: TNT
No. 7 Nevada vs. No. 10 Texas
Region: South
Location: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville
Time: 4:30 p.m.*
Channel: TBS
No. 8 Creighton vs. No. 9 Kansas State
Region: South
Location: Spectrum Center, Charlotte
Time: 6:50 p.m.
Channel: TNT
No. 3 Michigan State vs. No. 14 Bucknell
Region: Midwest
Location: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit
Time: 7:10 p.m.
Channel: CBS
No. 1 Xavier vs. No. 16 Texas Southern
Region: West
Location: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville
Time: 7:20 p.m.
Channel: TBS
No. 4 Auburn vs. No. 13 Charleston
Region: Midwest
Location: Viejas Arena, San Diego
Time: 7:27 p.m.
Channel: TruTV
No. 1 Virginia vs. No. 16 UMBC
Region: South
Location: Spectrum Center, Charlotte
Time: 9:20 p.m.*
Channel: TNT
No. 6 TCU vs. No. 11 Syracuse
Region: Midwest
Location: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit
Time: 9:40 p.m.*
Channel: CBS
No. 8 Missouri vs. No. 9 Florida State
Region: West
Location: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville
Time: 9:50 p.m.*
Channel: TBS
No. 5 Clemson vs. No. 12 New Mexico State
Region: Midwest
Location: Viejas Arena, San Diego
Time: 9:57 p.m.*
Channel: TruTV
*times are approximate
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