Friday’s slate of NCAA March Madness games did not disappoint as TCU mounted a furious comeback over the lower-seeded Arizona State Sun Devils, No. 1-seeded Purdue went down to 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson, Xavier survived a scare from Kennesaw State, and Florida Atlantic won a nail-biter to knock out Penny Hardaway’s team. Now check out which games you should watch on Sunday as a result of these games.
March Madness Games to Watch
No. 3 Kansas State vs No. 6 Kentucky
- When: Sunday, March 19th, 2023
- Start Time: 2:40 PM ET
- Location: Greensboro Coliseum – Greensboro, North Carolina
- How to watch: CBS
Kansas State vs Kentucky Preview
TCU downed Montana State and won by double digits after initially struggling with them to start the game. Kentucky won a tight against Providence and didn’t have any sort of comfortable lead throughout their game. This game could and should come down to guard play, which is where K-State likely has an advantage.
Kentucky has the best rebounder in the country in Oscar Tshiebwe, but KSU has a superb backcourt that could make it difficult to get the ball to him. Between Keyontae Johnson and Markquis Nowell, the purple Wildcats have some major firepower on offense that just might be too much for Cason Wallace and Antonio Reeves to handle. Meanwhile, Kentucky will have to shoot better than 37% from the floor if it wants to get to the second weekend of the tournament.
No. 4 UConn vs No. 5 St. Mary’s
- When: Sunday, March 19th, 2023
- Start Time: 6:10 PM ET
- Location: MVP Arena – Albany, New York
- How to watch: TNT
UConn vs St. Mary’s Preview
This should be a game between an immovable object and an unstoppable force as the Gaels come in allowing less than 61 points per game and the Huskies come in averaging almost 78 points per game. The difference in this come will likely come down to not only the ability to rebound and finish off defensive possessions but also to extend offensive ones and get second-chance opportunities. UConn excels here as their two main big men in Adama Sanogo and Donovan Clingan do those two things quite well.
An advantage for St. Mary’s should be from beyond the three-point line as they shoot nearly 38% from there. However, UConn only allows teams to shoot just over 30% from that range. So someone will have to win out and this could come down to Sanogo dominating the paint and SMC trying to figure out how to make his life miserable in there.
No. 9 Florida Atlanta vs No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson
- When: Sunday, March 19th, 2023
- Start Time: 7:45 PM ET
- Location: Nationwide Arena – Columbus, Ohio
- How to watch: truTV
Florida Atlantic vs Fairleigh Dickinson Preview
This is the highest seeding combination you can possibly get for a second-round game and is it also the least likely to happen. But we are here thanks to a frenetic ending to the Florida Atlantic-Memphis game and the grit that FDU showed in knocking off top-seeded Purdue. We’ll get to continue the magic and see which bottom half seed advances to the Sweet 16.
The FAU Owls are a pretty good shooting team and boast 7-footer Vladislav Goldin, who could be the X-Factor in this game. FAU should watch the Purdue tape against FDU and see how Zach Edey was misused. Avoiding those mistakes will go a long way in making sure FDU doesn’t become the first 16 seed to go to the Sweet 16. The Knights seem fairly outmatched here, but that was clearly not a problem in their first game, so we will see if they can recreate the defense that forced Purdue into shooting an abysmal 36% from the floor.
