Your 2012 NCAA Tournament Day Three Open Thread

/pinches self

Yep, not dreaming. Marquette's in the Sweet 16 for the second straight year for the first time in 35 years. Yep, still friggin' awesome.

While we already know that Marquette will be playing in Phoenix (where I hear the mayor is a hell of a guy), we don't know who the opposition will be. That will be decided today as the 7 seed Florida Gators play the 15 seed Norfolk State Spartans at 5:10pm. Yes, THAT Norfolk State. This one, too. According to NCAA bracketing policies, this is a completely fine matchup for the Sweet 16, but I'll pay $10 to anyone who can get an NCAA Committee member to admit that they even paid attention to that at all.

In addition to that, there are three Big East teams - Cincinnati, Georgetown, and South Florida - who are looking to add themselves to the three Big East teams - Louisville, Marquette, and Syracuse - already in the Sweet 16. Luckily, the committee set any Big East teams up to play a Big East team for a spot in the Sweet 16 this year, so things are looking good for the conference to triple the number of teams that made it that far last year.

Hit the jump for a full list of today's games!

11:15am Central: #3 Georgetown vs #11 North Carolina State, CBS
1:45pm: #1 Michigan State vs #9 Saint Louis, CBS
4:15pm: #1 North Carolina vs #8 Creighton, CBS
5:10pm: #7 Florida vs #15 Norfolk State, TNT

6:10pm: #12 South Florida vs #13 Ohio, TBS
6:45pm: #10 Xavier vs #15 Lehigh, truTV
7:40pm: #2 Kansas vs #10 Purdue, TNT
8:40pm: #3 Florida State vs #6 Cincinnati