{"id":668134,"date":"2026-03-20T02:13:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T02:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/668134\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T02:13:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T02:13:14","slug":"march-madness-2026-live-updates-scores-bracket-and-analysis-for-mens-first-round-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/668134\/","title":{"rendered":"March Madness 2026 live updates: Scores, bracket and analysis for men’s first-round games"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament begins on Thursday, as March Madness returns in full after two nights of First Four action. The action gets going with a cluster of Big Ten teams, as No. 8 seed Ohio State takes on TCU on CBS to begin the day and No. 4 seed Nebraska looks for its first-ever NCAA Tournament victory against No. 13 seed Troy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A top storyline throughout the day will be the elite freshmen in action. No. 1 seed Duke, led by star forward Cam Boozer, begins its journey against No. 16 seed Siena at 2:50 p.m. ET. Then, No. 4 seed Arkansas and electric freshman guard Darius Acuff will play No. 13 seed Hawaii.<\/p>\n

In the late window, No. 3 seed Illinois and flame-throwing freshman Keaton Wagler will take on No. 14 seed Penn. Finally, the day’s last game between No. 2 seed Houston and No. 15 seed Idaho will give Cougars guard Kingston Flemings his first chance to leave a legacy in March Madness.<\/p>\n

2026 NCAA Tournament TV schedule<\/p>\n

All times Eastern |\u00a0NCAA Tournament schedule<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0LIVE bracket<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n

(8) TCU 66, (9) Ohio State 64<\/strong>
Highlights<\/a> \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/td>\n(4) Nebraska 76, (13) Troy 47<\/strong><\/p>\n

Highlights<\/a> \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\n

(6) Louisville 83, (11) South Florida 79<\/strong>
Highlights<\/a> \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/td>\n12) High Point 83, (5) Wisconsin 82<\/strong><\/p>\n

Highlights<\/a> \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\n

(1) Duke 71, (16) Siena 65<\/strong>
Highlights<\/a> \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/td>\n(5) Vanderbilt 78, (12) McNeese 68<\/strong><\/p>\n

Highlights<\/a> \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\n

(3) Michigan State 92, (14) North Dakota State 67<\/strong>
Highlights<\/a> \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/td>\n(4) Arkansas 97, (13) Hawaii 78<\/strong>
Highlights<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\n

(6) North Carolina vs. (11) VCU
6:50 p.m. | TNT\u00a0|\u00a0Watch live<\/a> \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/td>\n(1) Michigan vs. (16) Howard
7:10 p.m. | CBS\u00a0|\u00a0Watch live<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\n

(6) BYU vs. (11) Texas
7:25 p.m.\u00a0| TBS\u00a0|\u00a0Watch live<\/a> \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/td>\n(7) Saint Mary’s vs. (10) Texas A&M<\/p>\n

7:35 p.m. | truTV\u00a0|\u00a0Watch live<\/a> \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\n

(3) Illinois vs. (14) Penn
9:25 p.m.\u00a0| TNT\u00a0|\u00a0Watch live<\/a> \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n

(8) Georgia vs. (9) Saint Louis
9:45 p.m.\u00a0| CBS\u00a0|\u00a0Watch live<\/a> \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\n

(3) Gonzaga vs. (14) Kennesaw State
10 p.m.\u00a0| TBS\u00a0|\u00a0Watch live<\/a> \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n

(2) Houston vs. (15) Idaho
10:10 p.m.\u00a0| truTV\u00a0|\u00a0Watch live<\/a> \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

CBS Sports will be with you the entire way, updating this story with the latest from every first-round game on Thursday. Keep it locked here for scores, analysis and highlights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament begins on Thursday, as March Madness returns in full after…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":668135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[281034,2076,45913,7218,40085,1317,11009,15776,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-668134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-bracket","tag-college-basketball","tag-first-round","tag-live-updates","tag-march-madness","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-scores","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116259088562652570","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}