Opening Thursday in March Madness saw two massive upsets, one by an Ivy League program with a history of killing giants and the other by a SoCon team that hadn’t won an NCAA tournament game in nearly half a century.
Now comes a Friday table with just as much action. Here is an overview of the Friday list:
FRIDAY AFTERNOON
12:15 p.m. – No. 7 Michigan State vs. No. 10 USC (CBS)
12:40 p.m. – No. 3 Xavier vs. No. 14 Kennesaw State (truTV)
1:40 p.m. – #3 Baylor vs. #14 UC Santa Barbara (TNT)
2 p.m. – No. 5 Saint Mary’s vs. No. 12 VCU (TBS)
2:45 p.m. – #2 Marquette vs. #15 Vermont (CBS)
3:10 p.m. – No. 6 Iowa State vs. No. 11 Pittsburgh (truTV)
4:10 p.m. – No. 6 Creighton vs. No. 11 NC State (TNT)
4:30pm – #4 UConn vs #13 Iona (TBS)
Worth seeing: Which powerful person made Andy Enfield angry? It’s bad enough that USC has drawn a Michigan State team that is causing matchup problems for the Trojans due to their perimeter shooting. What makes it worse is that the game is being played at the Big Ten Country in Columbus and the tip is at 9:15am PST. Will calamity gallop or break the Trojans? Can Michigan State sink enough jump shots over the top of the Trojans center-backs’ thicket? That’s what makes this battle of the big brands so fascinating.
Worth seeing: Before Rick Pitino leaves for a bigger job, perhaps in the Big East at St. John’s, he’ll be looking to lead his likely last Iona team to a massive upset at an NCAA tournament. The Gaels haven’t lost since January…but neither have they seen anyone as talented as UConn. Iona has a strong backfield and decent size for a midfielder, but defensive rebounding is a big problem. If the Gaels can keep the Huskies on a shot, this one has the potential to live up to the hype.
THURSDAY NIGHT
6:50 p.m. – No. 1 Purdue vs. No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson (TNT)
7:10 p.m. – No. 6 Kentucky vs. No. 11 Providence (CBS)
7:25 p.m. – No. 5 Miami vs. No. 12 Drake (TBS)
7:35 p.m. – #3 Gonzaga vs. #14 Grand Canyon (truTV)
9:20 p.m. – No. 8 Memphis vs. No. 9 Florida Atlantic (TNT)
9:40 p.m. – No. 3 Kansas State vs. No. 14 Montana State (CBS)
9:55 p.m. – No. 4 Indiana vs. No. 13 Kent State (TBS)
10:05 p.m. – No. 6 TCU vs. No. 11 Arizona State (truTV)
Worth seeing: Two years ago, Kentucky experienced its worst season in decades. Last year, the Wildcats suffered their worst NCAA tournament loss in program history. Thus, no coach in the country is under more pressure to win his first-round match this week than John Calipari. Kentucky will be looking to end a 1,449-day drought without an NCAA tournament win when it meets a Providence team that was battling for the Big East title through February but struggled on defense all the way.
Source : sports.yahoo.com