What to watch and what to skip on Friday

The opening Thursday of March Madness featured two massive upsets, one by an Ivy League program with a giant-slaying history and the other by a SoCon team that hadn’t won an NCAA tournament game in nearly half a century.

Now comes a Friday slate with twice as many games to choose from.

Not only are there 16 more men’s first-round games on Friday, the first round of the women’s NCAA tournament also tips off. Here’s a look at which games on Friday’s slate are must-see and which you can afford to click away from until the final two minutes:

FRIDAY AFTERNOON

Men’s schedule:

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. — No. 3 Baylor vs. No. 14 UC Santa Barbara (TNT)

2 p.m. — No. 5 Saint Mary’s vs. No. 12 VCU (TBS)

Women’s schedule:

11:30 a.m. — No. 8 South Florida vs. No. 9 Marquette (ESPN2)

12 p.m. — No. 7 Arizona vs. No. 10 West Virginia (ESPN)

1:30 p.m. — No. 7 Florida State vs. No. 10 Georgia (ESPN2)

2 p.m. — No. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 16 Norfolk State (ESPN)

Must-see: What powerful person did Andy Enfield make angry? It’s bad enough that USC drew a Michigan State team that poses matchup problems for the Trojans because of its perimeter shooting. What makes it even worse is that the game is being played in Big Ten country in Columbus and that tipoff is at 9:15 a.m. PST. Will the adversity galvanize the Trojans or break them? Can Michigan State sink enough jump shots over the top of the Trojans’ thicket of interior defenders? That’s what makes this battle of big brands intriguing.

[Free $25K best bracket contest for women’s tourney | Printable bracket]

Must-skip: South Carolina-Norfolk State has the potential to get ugly in a hurry — maybe even ugly enough to challenge the NCAA tournament record for margin of victory (88 points) set by Baylor in 2017. Alabama’s unheralded women’s basketball team outscored Norfolk State 48-9 in the second half of a game in mid-December….


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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2023-03-17 02:30:56

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