The first weekend of the NCAA tournament brings some whiplash for college basketball fans who have to make tough decisions with their remote controls. The sheer volume of games makes it difficult to keep up, as four games are often happening at once. But the Sweet 16 offers an opportunity to dig in and get a little closer look at the action.
Four games are scheduled for Thursday and four more for Friday as the field is reduced to an Elite Eight starting Saturday. Four televisions are no longer needed. In fact, the games are spread out enough that viewers can capture the most important windows of each game with a single screen.
Still, some games become the talk of the sports world, while others end without much drama. Historic powers like Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina, Duke and Indiana are nowhere to be found this weekend. That leaves programs like UCLA, UConn and Michigan State flying the banner for the “big brands” against a cast of Cinderellas that includes FAU and Princeton.
As the action nears, we’ll take a closer look at which games are the most compelling by ranking the Sweet 16 games in terms of observability. Games are ranked in descending order with all times ET.
Friday, 6:30 p.m. | TBS, March Madness Live
San Diego State is an elite defense team that could make Alabama figure things out. But the Crimson Tide are excellent defensively themselves and have too many offensive playmakers to be silenced. Alabama’s road to the Final Four has always looked easy, and the door has been opened wide for this squad to reach Houston. There’s always a chance the Aztecs will catch fire and the Crimson Tide will turn cold from across the arc. But if those two things don’t happen at the same time, Alabama should cruise into the Elite Eight.
7. Midwest: (1) Houston vs. (5) Miami
Friday, 7:15 p.m. | CBS, March Madness Live
Miami averages 79.1 points per game and Houston allows just 56.6. So what’s up? The contrasting styles between Hurricanes and Cougars make for a compelling matchup. Both sides have top-notch guard play and experienced coaches, suggesting neither will back down on the big stage. Ultimately, that could boil down to Miami’s ability to keep Houston from attacking the offensive glass. The Hurricanes may need to examine how Princeton recovered over the past weekend if they are to withstand the Cougars’ physical barrage on the glass.
6. East: (4) Tennessee vs. (9) FAU
Thursday, 9 p.m. | TBS, March Madness Live
Who’s ready for some rugby? FAU coach Dusty May is already bracing for Tennessee’s physical style, which is unlike anything the relatively small owls have encountered during the Conference USA game. But FAU has an advantage over Tennessee at 3-point shooting, mirroring a Missouri team that gave the Volunteers their vaunted defensive attacks this season. FAU had never won an NCAA tournament game prior to last week. The Owls now playing at Sweet 16 at Madison Square Garden makes this one of the few remaining Cinderella stories from the tournament. Of course, they lost some of their goodwill with a silly last-second dunk attempt in the second round against Fairleigh Dickinson, the tournament’s loveliest underdog.
5. South: (6) Creighton vs. (15) Princeton
Friday, 9 p.m. | TBS, March Madness Live
Princeton is this year’s Cinderella, but it hardly played like one last week. The Tigers just looked better and better prepared for the big dance than Arizona and Missouri. Make no mistake, however, any team that emerges No. 15 from the Ivy League is the quintessential underdog. Now, Princeton has a chance to take the nation by storm by making two straight seasons a No. 15 New Jersey player reach the Elite Eight after Saint Peter’s did last season.
4. Midwest: (2) Texas vs. (3) Xavier
Friday, 9:45 p.m. | CBS, March Madness Live
Both teams are in the top 40 for goals and the top 20 for assists, suggesting this could be the most offensively engaging game of the weekend. Neither team has an extremely dominant offensive alpha, so the list of players who could emerge as heroes is long. The coaching subplots are good too, with Sean Miller on his Redemption Tour with Xavier and Rodney Terry trying to prove he deserves the full-time coaching job in Texas. If Terry can lead the Longhorns to an Elite Eight after Chris Beard’s midseason layoff, he’ll become one of this month’s main storylines.
3rd East: (3) State of Kansas vs. (7) State of Michigan
Thursday, 6:30 p.m. | TBS, March Madness Live
The guard matchup between the 5-foot-8 Kansas State Dynamo Markquis Nowell and Michigan State Tyson Walker should be great. Both are undersized players who put in great performances this past weekend and can become legends if they lead their teams to a Final Four. The coaching match between Michigan State’s Tom Izzo, a March legend, and Kansas State’s Jerome Tang also offers an intriguing contrast. This is Izzo’s 15th Sweet 16, but it’s Tang’s first season as head coach. If Tang manages to defeat Izzo and the Spartans, it will only improve his case for National Coach of the Year.
2nd West: (4) UConn vs. (8) Arkansas
Thursday, 7:15 p.m. | CBS, March Madness Live
Dan Hurley versus Eric Musselman. What a coach matchup! These are two of the tightest, most flammable coaches in college basketball, and that alone makes this a compelling matchup. There’s a good chance we’ll see some tirades or shirtless celebrations. As for the actual game, Huskies star Adama Sanogo will be a challenge for the Razorbacks after experiencing a monster in the first weekend. But Arkansas likes to play fast and force turnovers, and that formula just resulted in a win over reigning national champions Kansas. This one has the ingredients of a classic.
1. West: (2) UCLA vs. (3) Gonzaga
Thursday, 9:39 p.m. | CBS, March Madness Live
This is a reboot of the 2021 Final Four thriller won by Gonzaga on an iconic Jalen Suggs buzzer beater. Although a few seasons have passed, there are still some of the biggest names from this game. Drew Timme is still Gonzaga’s top scorer, and UCLA stars like point guard Tyger Campbell and forward Jaime Jaquez are now senior leaders. Those teams also played early last season, and Gonzaga throttled UCLA 83-63, making Mick Cronin 0-2 against the Zags since he became UCLA’s coach. Overcoming the hump against the powerful Zags will be particularly difficult for the Bruins as they play without top defenseman Jaylen Clark, who is out with an Achilles injury.