Your March Madness Schedule And Open Thread
How's your bracket doing? I had New Mexico and Kansas State in the Sweet Sixteen, and Georgetown in the Elite Eight, and am nevertheless leading the Deadspin office pool due to the flawed bracketology philosophies of my coworkers. (Here's a tip, dingbats: Get lucky.) What's on tap today:
12:15 p.m. (5) VCU vs. (4) Michigan | CBS
VCU got to the second round with a blowout victory over Akron, though Akron was a wounded opponent, having lost its point guard to drug trafficking charges prior to the tournament. Michigan beat South Dakota St. by double digits.
2: 45 p.m. (6) Memphis vs. (3) Michigan St. | CBS
In the first game of the tournament, Michigan State cruised by Valparaiso, while Memphis was a Matthew Dellevadova miss away from being upset by St. Mary's.
5:15 p.m. (8) Colorado St. vs. (1) Louisville | CBS
Colorado State beat Mizzou by double digits, while Louisville did that thing that number one seeds are supposed to do to sixteen seeds, scoring nearly as many points in the first half as North Carolina A&T scored in the game.
6: 10 p.m. (14) Harvard vs. (6) Arizona | TNT
You know what fucking Harvard did, let's not talk about it. Arizona beat Belmont by 17.
7: 10 p.m. (12) Oregon vs. (4) St. Louis | TBS
Oregon, ranked mystifyingly low after winning the Pac-12 tournament, bruised Oklahoma St. on the way to its first-round upset. Mid-major darling St. Louis beat New Mexico State by 20.
7:45 p.m. (6) Butler vs. (3) Marquette | CBS
Butler beat Bucknell by 12 after a back-and-forth game, while Marquette needed a nine-point rally and a last-second lay-up from Vander Blue to beat Davidson.
8:40 p.m. (9) Wichita St. vs. (1) Gonzaga | TNT
Gonzaga looked kind of iffy against Southern, in the way that 1-seeds sometimes do. Wichita State looked far less iffy against Pittsburgh.
9:40 p.m. (12) Cal vs. (4) Syracuse | TBS
Syracuse played already? Oh, hardly—they beat Montana by 47. Cal beat a very young UNLV team by three, mostly by employing something called a "zone defense." Syracuse will be baffled.
Who ya got? Are you still paying attention, even though your bracket is ruined? What will you do instead of watching the game that Reggie Miller is calling? Tell us below.
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