NCAA TOURNAMENT THURSDAY GAMES OPEN THREAD

The opening day of the NCAA Tournament, aka sports nirvana.  It doesn't get much better than the first two days of the NCAA Tournament -- wall-to-wall basketball from 11 AM to midnight, upsets, buzzer-beaters, high drama.  Let's bring it on. Iowa doesn't play until tomorrow afternoon, but there are still plenty of other games to watch and comment on 'til then.

Duke headlines the early action on Thursday; can UNC Wilmington knock off the defending NCAA champions in the first round?  That would be pretty swell.  Beyond that, there's a pair of 8/9 match-ups and Iowa State faces Iona in Denver in an early afternoon showdown. Iona's been one of the chic underdog picks all week, so there could be some definite schadenfreude potential there for Iowa fans.

The other afternoon game action features two 1/16 games (will we finally see a historic upset there?  probably not) and two of the dreaded 5/12 games, Baylor taking on Yale and Purdue squaring off with Arkansas-Little Rock. THe 5/12 games usually (but not always) provide at least one upset a year, so we'll definitely keep an eye on those two games for some potential late game drama.

All times CT.

11:15 AM: #4 Duke vs #13 UNC Wilmington (CBS)
11:40 AM: #8 Texas Tech vs #9 Butler (TruTV)
12:30 PM: #8 Colorado vs #9 UConn (TNT)
1:00 PM: #4 Iowa State vs #13 Iona (TBS)

1:45 PM: #5 Baylor vs #12 Yale (CBS)
2:10 PM: #1 Virginia vs #16 Hampton (Tru TV)
3:00 PM: #1 Kansas vs #16 Austin Peay (TNT)
3:30 PM: #5 Purdue vs #12 Arkansas-Little Rock (TBS)

EDIT: And here's the evening action...

All times CT.

5:50 PM: #3 Miami vs #14 Buffalo (TNT)
6:10 PM: #5 Indiana vs #12 Chattanooga (CBS)
6:20 PM: #1 North Carolina vs #16 Florida Gulf Coast (TBS)
6:27 PM: #3 Utah vs #14 Fresno State (Tru TV)

8:20 PM: #6 Arizona vs #11 Wichita State (TNT)
8:40 PM: #4 Kentucky vs #13 Stony Brook (CBS)
8:50 PM: #8 USC vs #9 Providence (TBS)
8:57 PM: #6 Seton Hall vs #11 Gonzaga (Tru TV)

If you can't watch the game on TV, you can also stream all the games via the NCAA's March Madness Live service (more info here). NOTE: you do need to have a television provider to use March Madness Live.

The usual rules apply: no links to illegal online streams, no porn, no politics, no religion, no slurs, etc. Don't be a jerk.