NCAA tournament viewing guide: What to watch and skip on Friday
Thursday’s NCAA tournament slate featured two 12-5 upsets, two victories by formidable 11 seeds and an 8-9 game with a memorable finish. Can Friday top that drama? 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 SESSION
12:15 p.m. — No. 7 Dayton vs. No. 10 Syracuse (CBS)
12: 30 p.m. — No. 2 Villanova vs. No. 15 UNC Asheville (TruTV)
1:30 pm. — No. 7 Oregon State vs. No. 10 VCU (TBS)
2 p.m. — No. 4 Cal vs. No. 13 Hawaii (TNT)
Must-see: Can Cal overcome losing its starting point guard to a fractured hand and parting with its most well-known assistant coach days before its opening-round NCAA tournament game? By Friday afternoon, we’ll have an answer. Steady but less dynamic Sam Singer is expected to start in place of Tyrone Wallace when the Bears face off against a Hawaii team that won 27 games and pushed Oklahoma and Texas Tech back in December.
Must-skip: Even though Villanova has bombed out of the past two NCAA tournaments during the opening week, the Wildcats have lost both times in the round of 32 to opponents who are big, strong and athletic. That’s not UNC Asheville. Ten of the Bulldogs’ 11 losses have come against opponents rated 100th or worse in Ken Pomeroy’s rankings.
2:45 p.m. — No. 15 Middle Tennessee at No. 2 Michigan State (CBS)
3:00 p.m. — No. 7 Temple vs. No. 10 Iowa (TruTV)
4 pm. — No. 2 Oklahoma vs. No. 15 Cal State Bakersfield (TNT)
4:30 p.m. — No. 5 Maryland vs. No. 12 South Dakota State (TBS)
Must-see: Two 12-5 games produced upsets on Thursday, so perhaps South Dakota State can continue the trend even if the Jackrabbits aren’t regarded as quite a big a threat as Yale or Arkansas Little Rock were. South Dakota State won 26 games and swept the Summit League regular season and tournament titles behind the trio of guards George Marshall and Deondre Parks and forward Mike Daum.
Must-skip: Before its game against Oklahoma, Cal State Bakersfield senior Aly Ahmed told reporters the Sooners are “beatable” and “a good team, but they are not great.” Oh boy. There goes any chances of Oklahoma not being focused and looking past the Roadrunners. Sooners by 30 on Friday over a 24-win team that finished tied for second in the WAC in the regular season.
FRIDAY NIGHT SESSION
6:50 p.m. — No. 7 Wisconsin vs. No. 10 Pittsburgh (TNT)
7:10 p.m. — No. 3 West Virginia vs. No. 14 Stephen F. Austin (CBS)
7:20 pm. — No. 3 Texas A&M vs. No. 14 Green Bay (TBS)
7:27 p.m. — No. 1 Oregon vs. No. 16 Holy Cross (Tru-TV)
Must-see: West Virginia received easily the trickiest matchup of any No. 3 seed when it drew a Stephen F. Austin team that upset VCU in the opening round of the NCAA tournament two years ago and has dropped three Southland Conference games in the past four seasons. Believe it or not, the Lumberjacks force a higher percentage of turnovers than even West Virginia does with their pressure defense. This game will be determined by which press is most effective and if Stephen F Austin can keep the Mountaineers off the offensive glass.
Must-skip: There’s far less intrigue in the lone 16 vs. 1 matchup of the day — Pac-12 champion Oregon vs. charmed ninth-place Patriot League finisher Holy Cross. The Crusaders had to fly cross-country to Spokane after winning in Dayton on Wednesday. Maybe their tricky 1-3-1 zone keeps this competitive for a half, but Oregon is far too quick, far too athletic and far too well coached not to win this convincingly.
9:20 p.m. — No. 2 Xavier vs. No. 15 Weber State (TNT)
9:40 p.m. — No. 6 Notre Dame vs. No. 11 Michigan (CBS)
9:50 pm. — No. 6 Texas vs. No. 11 Northern Iowa (TBS)
9:57 p.m. — No. 8 Saint Joseph’s vs. No. 9 Cincinnati (Tru-TV)
Must-see: Northern Iowa has been a giant slayer this season, toppling North Carolina and Iowa State in non-conference play and edging Wichita State in two of their three meetings this season. The Panthers did endure a midseason slump, but they’ve won 12 of 13 entering their matchup with Texas. Both teams are comfortable at a slow pace — both are among the 50 most methodical in the country this season — and both have guards who can create late in the shot clock in Isaiah Taylor and Wes Washpun.
Must-skip: Several of the best games of the day are packed into this late session, and even 15th-seeded Weber State carries some intrigue. NBA scouts have been back to Damian Lillard’s alma mater to check out double-double machine Joel Bolomboy, a 6-foot-9 senior averaging 17.2 points and 12.7 rebounds. This will be a nice test for him against the physcial Xavier frontline of James Farr and Jalen Reynolds.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
