NCAA Tournament South Region Schedule Thursday, March 19: North Carolina Tar Heels, Oklahoma Sooners Get Tourney Started

The NCAA tournament will start its first wave of first-round games on Thursday with 32 teams taking the court in hopes of securing a second-round ticket and the South Region will be featuring six games, including action from the North Carolina Tar Heels and the Oklahoma Sooners, the region’s top two seeds.

In the South Region’s opener the #8 LSU Tigers (26-7) will be facing the #9 Butler Bulldogs (26-5) in a 12:20 p.m. ET showdown in Greensboro, N.C. LSU won the SEC regular season title but has dropped three of their last four while Butler is also coming off a regular season title in the Horizon conference but a loss in the finals.

The #1 North Carolina Tar Heels (28-4) will get their tournament started with a matchup against the #16 Radford Highlanders (21-11) at 2:50 p.m. ET in Greensboro, N.C. While the Tar Heels may be without Ty Lawson for the opener they should have plenty of fire-power with Tyler Hansbrough and Wayne Ellington to avoid the upset. The Tar Heels won the ACC regular season title but slipped up in the conference tournament while Radford started the season 4-9 but regrouped and  won the Big South regular season and conference title to earn their NCAA ticket.

Game three of the South Region will feature the #7 Clemson Tigers (23-8) and the #10 Michigan Wolverines (20-13) at 7:10 p.m. ET in Kansas City, MO. Clemson started the season 16-0 but ACC action tripped them up a bit and they have lost four of their last five games. The Wolverines were a serious bubble team prior to the selections being announced but they managed to make the tournament despite a 7-9 mark over their final 17 games.

Moments after game three tips off the #4 Gonzaga Bulldogs (26-5) will face the #13 Akron Zips (23-12) at 7:25 p.m. ET from Portland, OR. Gonzaga ran through the WCC with a perfect record and have won 18 of their last 19 games. Even the Bulldogs losses were close as they fell to UConn by five in OT, Utah by one and Arizona by five. As for the Zips it took a surprise MAC conference tournament title to get to the dance.

The #2 Oklahoma Sooners (27-5) will get their NCAA tournament started with a 9:40 p.m. ET showdown against the #15 Morgan State Bears (23-11) in Kansas City, MO. Oklahoma is still trying to regain their midseason form as they have dropped four of their last six games but with Blake Griffin healthy they anticipate a deep run in the South Region. The Bears captured the regular season and conference tournament title in the MEAC and have gone 15-2 over their last 17 games.

In the final game of South Region action on Thursday the #5 Illinois Fighting Illini (24-9) will face the #12 Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (24-8) at 9:55 p.m. ET in Portland, OR. Illinois finished third in the Big Ten conference but have dropped three of their last four games while the Hilltoppers won the Sun Belt and have rattled off seven straight victories. They also have a win over Louisville this year.

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