The first weekend of the 2018 NCAA Tournament certainly lived up to the title of March Madness, with six of the 12 highest seeded teams losing in the first two rounds.
That means the Sweet 16 this coming weekend will be filled with games featuring matchups very few saw coming. The optimistic view is that these are the teams hottest right now, as evidenced by them making it here, and that will lend itself to good basketball. The pessimistic (and possibly realistic) perspective is that while upsets on the first weekend are fun, they lead to some lopsided matchups in the later rounds and less intriguing games.
The Sweet 16 will tipoff on Thursday night, with games coming from the Atlanta regional and Los Angeles regional (the left side of your bracket), where the highest seed remaining in either are the No. 3 Michigan Wolverines. Friday’s action will come from the Omaha and Boston regionals, where each has both 1 and 2 seeds still alive. CBS and Turner announced the full TV schedule for the Sweet 16 action, which will be on CBS and TBS, with tip times and commentators..
Thursday, March 22
7:07 p.m. ET (CBS): (11) Loyola (IL) vs. (7) Nevada — Brian Anderson, Chris Webber and Lisa Byington
7:37 p.m. ET (TBS): (7) Texas A&M vs. (3) Michigan — Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller, Dan Bonner and Dana Jacobson
After Loyola/Nevada (CBS): (9) Kansas State vs. (5) Kentucky — Anderson, Webber and Byington
After A&M/Michigan (TBS): (9) Florida State vs. (4) Gonzaga — Harlan, Miller, Bonner and Jacobson
Friday, March 23
7:07 p.m. ET (CBS): (5) Clemson vs. (1) Kansas — Jim Nantz, Grant Hill, Bill Raftery and Tracy Wolfson
7:37 p.m. ET (TBS): (5) West Virginia vs. (1) Villanova — Ian Eagle, Jim Spanarkel and Allie LaForce
After Clemson/Kansas (CBS): (11) Syracuse vs. (2) Duke — Nantz, Hill, Raftery and Wolfson
After WVU/Nova (TBS): (3) Texas Tech vs. (2) Purdue — Eagle, Spanarkel, LaForce
