It’s Day 2 of the NCAA Tournament after a Day 1 that had a little less excitement than we are used to in March Madness. Sure, there was the ironic mental collapse in the Math Bowl between the Vanderbilt Commodores and the Northwestern Wildcats. And there was a pair of “upsets”, which seems low for a full 16 games. Melo Trimble, perhaps the player who gets more credit for doing less to will his team to wins came up short against the Xavier Musketeers. Your favorite neighbors, the Minnesota Golden Gophers went full Gopher and got beaten by a directional Tennessee school by 9. Never go full Gopher. In their defense, Middle Tennessee State was under-seeded and probably should have been on an 8-9 line somewhere (maybe in Wisconsin’s place since they were woefully under-seeded) and Minnesota had no business being on the 5-line. Vegas agreed and the second “upset” of the day was actually supposed to happen according to the people with all the money in the desert.
The two upset losses on the day both happened to come from Big Ten teams, taking the conference record on Day 1 to 3-2. The winners being the aforementioned nerds from Northwestern, as well as our most hated rival, the Purdue Boilermakers, and our other rodent rivals, the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Of the 340 entries in the Black Heart Gold Bracket March Madness Bracket challenge, only 6 perfect entries remain. For those of you who, like me, have missed a game or four, fear not. There’s still plenty of time to make up some ground and get your hands on that coveted Ben Ross original artwork.
The Big Ten’s final two representatives to take the court are the Michigan schools. The Michigan Wolverines look to ride their plane juju from the Big Ten Tournament Championship into the first round of the NCAA Tournament with the first game of Day 2. They take on the Oklahoma State Cowboys and their stud PG Jawun Evans at 11:15 am CT. The Michigan State Spartans round out the Big Ten action today with an 8:20 pm CT tip against the 8-seeded Miami Hurricanes.
Here’s your quick reminder of where to find the four channels carrying the games:
Tournament Channel Breakdown
Station | DirecTV | Dish Network | Mediacom |
---|---|---|---|
Station | DirecTV | Dish Network | Mediacom |
CBS | 2 | 2 | 2 |
TBS | 247 | 139 | 836 |
TNT | 245 | 138 | 835 |
TruTV | 246 | 242 | 869 |
If you find yourself in a situation where you don’t have a TV, be advised that CBS has a pretty legit app for you to use called March Madness Live. It not only has all the scores and stats, but also allows you to watch any of the 4 channels carrying games live if you provide your carrier information. While streaming a game, you can tap the screen to see the scores of all other games in progress and easily switch between them. We would never advise using such a thing while at your place of employment (the world would likely come to a grinding halt without all you running it), but if you need to run to the restroom while you’re at the bar or maybe your TV is on the fritz. And if any of you know someone at CBS, see if you can’t get us hooked up with some ad money for that free plug.
Here’s your full listing of NCAA Tournament matchups, complete with start times and channel listings for Day 2:
Friday, March 17th NCAA Tournament Matchups
Time | Matchup | TV |
---|---|---|
Time | Matchup | TV |
11:15 AM | 10 Oklahoma State v. 7 Michigan | CBS |
11:40 AM | 14 New Mexico State v. 3 Baylor | TRU |
12:30 PM | 9 Seton Hall v. 8 Arkansas | TNT |
1:00 PM | 14 Iona v. 3 Oregon | TBS |
1:45 PM | 15 Jackonsville State v. 2 Louisville | CBS |
2:10 PM | 11 USC v. 6 SMU | TRU |
3:00 PM | 16 Texas Southern v. 1 UNC | TNT |
3:30 PM | 11 Rhode Island v. 6 Creighton | TBS |
5:50 PM | 16 UC Davis v. 1 Kansas | TNT |
6:10 PM | 10 Wichita State v. 7 Dayton | CBS |
6:20 PM | 15 Troy v. 2 Duke | TBS |
6:27 PM | 11 Kansas State v. 6 Cincinnati | TRU |
8:20 PM | 9 Michigan State v. 8 Miami | TNT |
8:40 PM | 15 Northern Kentucky v. Kentucky | CBS |
8:50 PM | 10 Marquette v. 7 South Carolina | TBS |
8:57 PM | 14 Kent State v. 3 UCLA | TRU |
*All times listed are CT.
The full bracket is below. And if you are still in need of a hard copy, here’s a printable pdf.
Here’s to hoping Day 2 has a little more excitement. Enjoy.