2018 NCAA Tournament First Round Day Two Viewing Guide & Open Thread

Let’s run through the checklist of everything great that happened on Day 1 of the NCAA tournament.

1. The first game of the tournament went to overtime
2. UNC Greensboro rallied from down 12 to take a two point lead on Gonzaga with under 2 minutes left before falling.
3. Penn gave Kansas fits for about 15 minutes.
4. Loyola-Chicago upset Miami on a buzzer beater and made a 98 year old nun very happy.
5. Mike Daum and South Dakota State gave Ohio State fits the whole game long.
6. Rob Gray went nuts to propel Houston past San Diego State.
7. Texas Tech and Stephen F. Austin had an AMAZING game.
8. Alabama hit ALL OF THE SHOTS to beat Virginia Tech in a close battle.
9. Buffalo BLEW THE DOORS off of Arizona.

Run yourself over to Mike Rutherford’s recap of Day 1 for the SB Nation mothership and check out all of the highlights. It’s all great.

That brings us to today, and it’s a big day for Big East fans. We kick things off with Providence trying to keep the Big East undefeated in the very first game of the day. Butler tangles with Arkansas in the mid-afternoon block, and then tonight, we get Creighton and Xavier going on at the same time. I would wager that most of us will watch more of the Creighton game than the Xavier game. Trust me, this would be in Xavier’s best interest, anyway.

Those games actually seem to be the highlights of the entire day. I mean, are you that excited about the Missouri/Florida State game? Oh, I suppose we should point out that St. Bonaventure lost last night, which means, given the rules of “one First Four team always gets to the Round of 32,” that Syracuse is going to knock off TCU. That might be fun, in that “upsets are fun” kind of way, but not in the “Syracuse lost” kind of way.

Remember, Marquette’s women’s team plays Dayton at 1:30pm today, so swing over to ESPN2/WatchESPN to catch that along the way. DePaul clashes with Oklahoma at 11am, and Villanova plays South Dakota State at 6pm in other Big East WBB action as well.

If you find yourself away from a television and in need of streaming options, there’s always March Madness Live, but don’t forget about Hulu, CBS All Access, or Fubo.

All times Central.

11:15am - #7 Texas A&M vs #10 Providence, CBS
11:40am - #2 Purdue vs #15 Cal State Fullerton, TruTV

12:30pm - #4 Wichita State vs #13 Marshall, TNT
1pm - #2 Cincinnati vs #15 Georgia State, TBS

1:45pm - #2 North Carolina vs #15 Lipscomb, CBS
2:10pm - #7 Arkansas vs #10 Butler, TruTV

3pm - #5 West Virginia vs #12 Murray State, TNT
3:30pm - #7 Nevada vs #10 Texas, TBS

5:50pm - #9 Kansas State vs #8 Creighton, TNT
6:10pm - #3 Michigan State vs #14 Bucknell, CBS
6:20pm - #1 Xavier vs #16 Texas Southern, TBS
6:27pm - #4 Auburn vs #13 Charleston, TruTV

8:20pm - #1 Virginia vs #16 UMBC, TNT
8:40pm - #6 TCU vs #11 Syracuse, CBS
8:50pm - #8 Missouri vs #9 Florida State, TBS
8:57pm - #5 Clemson vs #12 New Mexico State, TruTV