NCAA Tournament First Round Games for Friday March 18, 2011

The first round of the NCAA Tournament continues today. The second half of the 64-team field tries to keep up with the excitement of Thursday's action. There were buzzer beaters, furious comebacks, thunderous dunks and upsets across the board yesterday, can the following games keep up?

12:15 - (13) Oakland vs. (4) Texas

12:40 - (9) Tennessee vs. (8) Michigan

1:40 - (15) Akron vs. (2) Notre Dame
Notre Dame is a Final Four contender and shouldn't have much trouble with Akron, but as Louisville showed yesterday, anything is possible.

2:10 -  (9) Villanova vs. (8) George Mason
George Mason nearly made history several years ago with a run deep into the tournament. To try and make it back into the national spotlight, they must get past a solid Villanova team that wants nothing more than to keep George Mason from advancing and take the spotlight.

2:45 -  (12) Memphis vs. (5) Arizona

3:10 -  (16) Hampton vs. (1) Duke
Duke's Kyrie Irving is trying to return from a season long injury during tournament play. Look for him to get some minutes during the game today and shake off the rust from sitting on the bench. If he plays as well as he did early in the year, the Devils could significantly improve their chances.

4:10 - (10) Florida State vs. (7) Texas A&M
Florida State plays up to their competition more often than not. Don't expect Texas A&M to breeze by the Seminoles.

4:40 - (16) UT-San Antonio vs. (1) Ohio State
A 16 seed has never beaten a 1 seed in tournament play, don't expect anything to be different tomorrow.

6:50 - (16) Boston University vs. (1) Kansas
See above

7:15 -  (15) Long Island vs. (2) UNC
North Carolina made a strong push at the end of the regular season, but had trouble reaching the ACC Championship game in a year with few strong conference teams. Which team will show up today for the Tar Heels?

7:20 -  (14) St. Peter's vs. (3) Purdue
Purdue is playing without guard Kelsey Barlow who was suspended for the remainder of the season for "conduct detrimental to the team." Can they play up to their high standards without him?

7:27 - (11) Marquette vs. (6) Xavier

9:20 - (9) Illinois vs. (8) UNLV

9:45 - (10) Georgia vs. (7) Washington
Georgia has made a season of getting up on teams early and blowing leads late. That kind of performance can make for a quick exit in March. Whether or not Georgia advances to the round of 32 depends on which Georgia team shows up.

9:50 -  (11) Virginia Commonwealth vs. (6) Georgetown

9:57 - (14) Indiana State vs. (3) Syracuse
Syracuse came into the season highly touted but lost several winnable games during the year by slim margins. If Syracuse plays to their potential they can go deep in this year's tournament.