The first two rounds of March Madness have officially ended and that means we can get excited about Sweet 16 games this week. Here are all of Friday’s games to watch as the tipoffs become more manageable and may not require all four of your TVs to be put to good use at once. You can check out the full breakdown of the Thursday games for the Sweet 16 here.
How To Watch March Madness Sweet 16 Games
No. 1 Alabama vs No. 5 San Diego State
- When: Friday, March 24th, 2023
- Start Time: 6:30 PM ET
- Location: KFC Yum! Center – Louisville, Kentucky
- How to watch: TBS
Alabama vs San Diego State Preview
Alabama cruised in its first two games against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Maryland. It looked like a true No. 1 seed last weekend and will look to repeat the performance against a team that is laden with upperclassmen. Those experienced players have led the Aztecs to the No. 6 ranked three-point field goal defense by percentage. And as a matter of fact, Alabama is actually No. 3 in the same category. So you may expect this game to come down to a rock fight in the paint.
San Diego State gets pretty even contributions scoring-wise from its roster, but Alabama will rely heavily on SEC Player of the Year Brandon Miller. If SDSU wants to have a puncher’s chance in this game, it will have to try to limit him and make someone else on this team beat them. Slowing down the pace and making this a slugfest will go a long way as well since Alabama isn’t entirely comfortable playing slowly.
No. 1 Houston vs No. 5 Miami
- When: Friday, March 24th, 2023
- Start Time: 7:15 PM ET
- Location: T-Mobile Center – Kansas City, Missouri
- How to watch: CBS
Houston vs Miami Preview
Houston was one of two top seeds to advance to this stage and the driver has been their defense. On the other hand, Miami has gotten by on mediocre defense and shooting the ball incredibly well. The Hurricanes are a top-20 team in shooting percentage from the floor overall and have threats all over the floor in Isaiah Wong, Norchad Omier, and Jordan Miller.
Houston’s defense has been its calling card all season long, and especially from deep as it holds opponents to under 28% shooting from beyond the arc. Marcus Sasser has looked like his old self and the Cougars have gotten more than offense to get by so far. They might have a little more difficulty with this solid Hurricanes squad that is looking to get to the Elite Eight for the second straight year.
No. 6 Creighton vs No. 15 Princeton
- When: Friday, March 24th, 2023
- Start Time: 9:00 PM ET
- Location: KFC Yum! Center – Louisville, Kentucky
- How to watch: TBS
Creighton vs Princeton Preview
This is likely where Princeton’s Cinderella run ends as the Tigers don’t really have an answer for 7-footer Ryan Kalkbrenner and have gotten by on pure grit. Creighton is a team that showed plenty of that by beating Baylor and doing it with a barrage of threes in the second half. Of course, Princeton has that in spades having already beaten two higher seeds on their journey here.
If Creighton is missing shots, the Bluejays are likely not getting second chance opportunities as Princeton is a top-10 rebounding team and specifically a top-4 defensive rebounding team. This is where they stand a chance. The team must make a lot more shots than they’re used to making in order to keep up with a potentially hot Creighton team.
No. 2 Texas vs No. 3 Xavier
- When: Friday, March 24th, 2023
- Start Time: 9:45 PM ET
- Location: T-Mobile Center – Kansas City, Missouri
- How to watch: CBS
Texas vs Xavier Preview
This game might receive the most hype of all the Sweet 16 as it takes place between the highest remaining seeds (outside of Houston) in the bracket. It was the chalkiest of the brackets and hopefully, that means we get a game with heft and tension to get to the Elite Eight. The Musketeers are excellent shooters with a collective 38.9% three-point shooting mark (5th in the country) and 49.3% overall shooting mark (6th in the country).
Texas will have to play some of its best defense to win this game and keep Xavier’s offense from getting easy looks. Xavier averages the most assists per game so disrupting passing lanes, open looks, and easy decisions will be key in the Longhorns extending their weekend to the Elite Eight. Making life difficult for the Xavier trio of Jack Nunge, Souley Boum, and Colby Jones will be the task for Texas while Dylan Disu, Sir’Jabari Rice, and Marcus Carr step up their games for this one.
Be sure to stay tuned at Project Spurs for more coverage of March Madness.
