NCAA Tournament live updates: Michigan State-USC leads off, Kennesaw State upset coming?
Welcome to the happy confluence that is the first Friday of March Madness and St. Patrick’s Day.
This promising day of cool and fun features 16 men’s NCAA Tournament games in the Round of 64 slate. Will there be any more big upsets? On Thursday, No. 15 Princeton stunned No. 2 Arizona and the 13-seeded Paladins of Furman upset No. 4 Virginia.
The first men’s game Friday is at 12:15 p.m. ET between No. 10 USC and No. 7 Michigan State (CBS), and the action won’t stop until around midnight on the East Coast with No. 11 Arizona State and No. 6 TCU tipping off at 10:05 p.m. ET (truTV).
In addition, the women’s first round gets underway. Aliyah Boston and South Carolina gets their title defense started against Norfolk State at 2 p.m. ET (ESPN), while fellow No. 1 seed Virginia Tech takes on Chattanooga at 5:30 p.m. (ESPNU). Caitlin Clark and 2nd-seeded Iowa faces SE Louisiana at 4 p.m. (ESPNU). The final games on the schedule start at 10 p.m. ET with Gonzaga facing Ole Miss (ESPNU) and Princeton matching up against N.C. State (ESPN2).
Think you have what it takes to beat your friends? Test your college basketball skills (or luck) here with USA TODAY’s Survivor Pool. Bookmark our brackets page, too!
Follow the madness: Latest Men’s NCAA Tournament College Basketball Scores and Schedules
BRACKETS: See which teams have advanced
MEN’S NCAA TOURNAMENT: Get your printable bracket here
first-round picks is an arduous task. It is important to take into account seed positioning and game matchups. For example, a team with a favorable first-round matchup that has the potential of facing a higher seed in one of the next few rounds could be a smart pick. Why? Because an unfavorable future matchup would result in that team being less tempting to select again.
Here are five intriguing picks for first-round consideration in the women’s tournament, taking into account matchups and bracket positioning.
This is what we want on the first day of Madness: Brackets breaking all over the country and double-digit seeds shocking everyone (except themselves, at least if you’re Princeton).
But other top seeds looked dominant — which is what they’re supposed to look like, especially in their first-round games. All of it is coming together to provide an intriguing second round. But first, we’ve got one more whole day of first-round games, which may provide even more chaos.
— Lindsay Schnell
Friday’s games ranked by how watchable we think they’ll be. But again, keep that remote handy in case unexpected situations develop.
- No. 6 Kentucky vs. No. 11 Providence
- No. 8 Memphis vs. No. 9 Florida Atlantic
- No. 5 Saint Mary’s vs. No. 12 Virginia Commonwealth
- No. 6 TCU vs. No. 11 Arizona State
- No. 7 Michigan State vs. No. 10 Southern California
— Eddie Timanus
That backfired in spectacular fashion.
Just five days after Marcus Sasser strained his groin in the American Athletic Conference tournament semifinals, he was back in the Cougars’ starting lineup Thursday night. For a first-round game against a No. 16 team.
In a surprise to pretty much no one, Sasser didn’t even make it to halftime. Now top-seeded Houston might not make it to the second weekend, let alone to the Final Four in its hometown.
most scrutinized 20-year-old in basketball couldn’t make a shot before eventually going to the bench to rest a sore groin. The walk-on nobody had heard of before Wednesday night threatened to sue the New York Times. And the coach is losing his mind on every dribble for two straight hours of a game he didn’t come close to losing.
In other words, it was just another day in Alabama basketball.
— Dan Wolken
What’s a Paladin?
Princeton might have pulled off the biggest upset Thursday, but 13-seeded Furman’s downing of No. 4 Virginia was a fun (unless you’re a Cavaliers fan, of course) start to the 2023 men’s NCAA Tournament.
It’s been a long wait for Paladins men’s basketball fans. It was more than 40 years since Furman was last in the tournament, and over 45 years since its last March Madness win.
— Jordan Mendoza
TruTV can be found on several cable providers, and has the same channel number nationwide on some of the providers. Here are the channels:
- ATT U-Verse: 164/1164
- FIOS: 183/683
- Cox: Varies by location
- DISH: 242
- DirecTV: 246
- Spectrum: Varies by location
- Xfinity: Varies by location
For streaming, truTV is also available on: YouTube TV, iOS App Store, Google Play, Amazon App Store, Chromecast, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku and Android TV.
Which March Madness games will be on truTV?
Four games will be broadcast Friday on truTV during the first rounds of March Madness. Here are the games that will be on truTV, as well as tip-off times (in ET):
► No. 3 Xavier vs. No. 14 Kennesaw State (Friday, 12:40 p.m.)