NCAA tournament Day 3: What to watch and what to skip during March Madness on Saturday
· Yahoo Sports
The first eight teams in the Sweet 16 will be crowned on Saturday.
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After 32 games across Thursday and Friday, Saturday and Sunday brings us 16 games. The afternoons are more spread out while the evenings are jam-packed. Will we see more upsets on Saturday, too? Four double-digit seeds scored wins on Thursday. At least one will make the Sweet 16, right?
Here’s the complete schedule for Saturday’s men’s second round. All times are Eastern.
Saturday channel guide
12:10 p.m. — No. 1 Michigan vs. No. 9 Saint Louis (CBS)
2:45 p.m. — No. 3 Michigan State vs. No. 6 Louisville (CBS)
5:15 p.m. — No. 1 Duke vs. No. 9 TCU (CBS)
6:10 p..m. — No. 2 Houston vs. No. 10 Texas A&M (TNT)
7:10 p.m. — No. 3 Gonzaga vs. No. 11 Texas (TruTV/TBS)
7:50 p.m. — No. 3 Illinois vs. No. 11 VCU (CBS)
8:50 p.m. — No. 4 Nebraska vs. No. 5 Vanderbilt (TNT)
9:45 p.m. — No. 4 Arkansas vs. No. 12 High Point (TruTV/TBS)
Must-see: The second-round TV schedule always leaves a lot to be desired if you’re a college basketball junkie wanting to watch games all day. It’s great if you have things to do in the morning and early afternoon; you can still see most of the action in the evening on the East Coast.
Given the first two games have no competition, they’re ineligible for this category. And besides, the most intriguing game of the day is in the evening, anyway.
Nebraska got its first NCAA tournament win ever on Thursday over Troy. Right after that, Vanderbilt won its first March Madness game since 2012 with a win over McNeese. Before 2026, Nebraska had made eight NCAA tournament appearances and never made it this far. Vanderbilt hasn’t made it to the Sweet 16 since 2007, when the Commodores advanced there as a No. 6 seed. Both teams spent time ranked in the top 10 of the AP Top 25 this season and look incredibly evenly matched. Vanderbilt is just a 1.5-point favorite.
Must-skip: There are five games with double-digit spreads on Saturday and we’re not sure that most of the favorites are going to cover in them. We think you’re safe not worrying too much about Illinois against VCU. The No. 11 Rams upset No. 6 North Carolina on Thursday as the Tar Heels missed their final eight shots of regulation and scored just three points in overtime. Illinois has one of the best offenses in college basketball. The Illini probably won’t go on a drought like that.
Houston is a 10.5-point favorite over Texas A&M. The Aggies are an interesting matchup for Houston, but we think the Cougars will be too much for A&M.
Most likely upset:Duke cannot play anything like it did Thursday against Siena and hope to beat TCU. The Horned Frogs are capable of hanging with anyone in college basketball and are much deeper than a Siena team that played its starters for all but two seconds against the Blue Devils. We think Duke will have a much better showing, but the Blue Devils only played seven players in the first round thanks to Caleb Foster and Patrick Ngongba II’s absences.
Keep an eye on Texas against Gonzaga, too. The Zags are without Braden Huff — he averages 18 points a game — and were pushed by Kennesaw State late Thursday night. Texas forward Dailyn Swain also could be ready for a big game. He averages almost 18 points per contest but scored 13 against NC State and 14 against BYU on Thursday night.
Player to watch: Michigan State center Carson Cooper has emerged in March. He’s averaging just 11 points per game this season but has topped that number in each of his last four games. He had 19 points the Spartans’ regular-season loss to Michigan and had 20 points and 10 rebounds while going 7-of-9 from the field in MSU’s first-round win over North Dakota State on Thursday.
Louisville guard Mikel Brown Jr. looks unlikely to play on Saturday after missing Thursday’s game along with the ACC tournament. With or without Brown in the lineup, Louisville is a guard-dominant team. Another big game from Cooper will probably put the Spartans in the Sweet 16 in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2014 and 2015.