The first weekend of the NCAA men’s basketball will conclude on Sunday with eight games from Pittsburgh, Greenville, SC, Milwaukee and San Diego.
By the end of the night, the original 68-team stadium will be reduced to the final round of 16.
The remaining teams will then play starting Thursday in four regional areas in Philadelphia (East), Chicago (Midwest), San Antonio (South) and San Francisco (West). By the end of the game on March 27, a group of four-team teams will remain, and they will head to the Final Four in New Orleans for the National Semifinals and the April 2 and 4 finals.
On Sunday, some of the biggest names of coaches in men’s college basketball will be on display, including Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski facing his old friend, Michigan State’s Tom Izu, for the last time before Krzyzewski retires after this season.
Vilanova’s coach Jay Wright, who has won two of the last five National titles, as well as Auburn’s Bruce Pearl, Purdue’s Matt Painter, Texas’s Chris Bird and Notre Dame’s Mike Brie – all chasing their first titles, will headline. their teams.
Here’s what to watch (all times east):
Michigan State vs. Duque | 5:15 pm | CBS
It’s Coach K vs. Tom Izzo, for the last time.
This will be the sixth NCAA tournament encounter between two coaches, ever. Krzyzewski, 75, 12-3 against Izzo, 67, including a 3-2 championship record.
“Here we go again…MSU vs Duke and Coach Izzo vs Coach K on Sunday!” chirp Magic Johnson, who starred in Michigan State. “America, you’re about to get a treat!”
The two coaching legends are rivals on the court, but they are close friends with him.
“He’s the example, he’s the model that the rest of us have to live up to, and I hope to be one of the guys to pass on this baton to,” Izu said in a TV interview.
“We are good enough friends that he knows I have to compete on Sunday, and I know he must, so like Hatfields and McCoys, you go to war for a day, but respect and admiration will be there for life.”
The Spartans last had an eighth-round game in 2019, when they brought down a Duke squad that includes current NBA players Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish.
One thing to watch out for is the health of Duke’s junior winger Wendell Moore Jr., who slid to the ground and made a full split in Duke’s win over Cal State Fullerton on Friday.
Dive into the NCAA tournaments
“Wendell is injured, I hope he is fine on Sunday,” Krzyszewski said in a TV interview. “This floor. It looks like a floor they play hockey here. Everyone was slipping. We have to be careful, he might have pinched his hip.”
Bordeaux vs. Texas | 8:40 PM | TNT
Matt Painter vs. Chris Bird is the must-watch training card.
Painter’s Painter is considered one of the best coaches in the business. But for all his success – four matches in the round of 16 and one in the last eight – he did not reach the final.
To stand a chance this season, he’ll have to beat the coach who had his number in the post-season. Beard Texas 2-0 against Purdue in the championship. In 2016, Beard topped the 12th seed Arkansas Little Rock over the No. 5 Purdue, 85-83, in double overtime. As coach of Texas Tech two years later, Beard led the Red Raiders over Purdue, 78-65, to advance to the eighth round.
Beard 10-3 in the NCAA Championship, 5-0 in the first round. But now he has to contend with the busy 7-foot-4 Bordeaux frontrunner Zach Eddy and 6-10 Trevion Williams. The Texans will also have to find a way to stay ahead of Boilermakers 6-4 star guard Jaden Ivey, a projected NBA lottery pick who averages 17.6 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 3.1 assists.
The Big 12 and Big Ten got off to a solid start.
The Big 12 was a perfect 6-0 during the first two days of the tournament while the Big Ten went 6-3.
Of the Big 12, Kansas, Baylor, Texas, Texas Tech, Texas Christian, and Iowa State all won their first-round games averaging 23 points. The 9th-seeded, fifth-ranked TCU defeated 8th-seeded Seton Hall of the Big East, 69-42, in their last first-round match Friday night. The No. 11 seed in Iowa, chosen in the last 12 pre-season poll, edged out No. 7 seed Louisiana, 59-54, as rookie guard Therese Hunter became the second player in tournament history with seven three-pointers and five steals. in a game. The other player was Stephen Curry, an NBA star who played with Davidson.
The vaunted Big Ten, considered by many to be the deepest conference in the country, had six teams left after the first round, including Wisconsin and Illinois, who shared the regular season title and overcame separate concerns on Friday. 3rd seed Wisconsin held off annoying 14th seed Colgate, while 4th seed Illinois trailed 13th seed Chattanooga by the last 45 seconds. Eleni took the lead after Alfonso Plummer hit two free throws 12 seconds from the end of the match.
Notre Dame vs Texas Tech | 7:10 pm | TBS
Notre Dame is still flying high.
A team has advanced from the role of play to at least the round of 32 in 10 of the last 11 NCAA tournaments, and the 11th seed Notre Dame was the latest to do so.
After outplaying the Rutgers in double overtime in a game that began Wednesday night and ended just after midnight Thursday, coach Mike Bree and his co-stars traveled to San Diego, where they had to turn around and play sixth-seeded Alabama in the round of 64 on Friday afternoon. They advanced, 78-64, thanks in large part to young guard Cormac Ryan, a New York native who scored 29 points while making 7 of 9 3-pointers.
After the match, Berry joked to his team in the changing room, “You know the great thing? At least we don’t have to get on a plane tonight. Should we get on a plane and fly a little bit because that worked?”
The Irish are supposed to have stayed in San Diego without even getting on a plane, which it is. They needed any relief they could get in a tough showdown with No. 3 ranked Texas Tech.
Here is the strategy for watching games.
Whatever you do on Sunday, catching up with the Duke-Michigan State game, which kicks off at 5:15 p.m. ET, should be the top priority. Any time Duke plays now, it could end up being Krzyzewski’s last match.
Start things off after lunch with a tip at 12:10 p.m. between Houston, the Final Four team a year ago, and Illinois. Then check out Ohio State-Villanova at 2:40 p.m. for a game between two excellent sports programs. Both games are scheduled to air on CBS.
For late-night entertainment, tipping at 8:40 p.m. between Texas and Purdue should be electrical.