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March Madness: Where and how to watch the matchups

18 March 2021
Dan Ackermann
Data: Axios Research; Chart: Will Chase/Axios

Welcome to the NCAA Tournament's "First Four" play-in round, the first official day of truTV Awareness Month.

Tonight's slate (all times Eastern):

  • 5:10pm (truTV): No. 16 Texas Southern vs. No. 16 Mount St. Mary's
  • 6:27pm (TBS): No. 11 Drake vs. No. 11 Wichita State
  • 8:40pm (truTV): No. 16 Appalachian State vs. No. 16 Norfolk State
  • 9:57pm (TBS): No. 11 UCLA vs. No. 11 Michigan State

Fun fact: From the tournament's expansion to 64 teams in 1985 through 2019, just two games featured Hall of Fame coaches leading a team seeded No. 11 or lower, per FiveThirtyEight.

  • There will be three such games this weekend alone, with Tom Izzo leading No. 11 Michigan State, Jim Boeheim leading No. 11 Syracuse and Rick Pitino leading No. 15 Iona.

Good read ... ESPN ranked all 68 head coaches based on their playing careers. Georgetown's Patrick Ewing tops the list, followed by Michigan's Juwan Howard and Grand Canyon's Bryce Drew.

Data: Axios Research; Chart: Will Chase/Axios

64 teamswill wake up this morning in the San Antonio bubble, where the women's tournament gets underway on Sunday.

  • Quarantine: Teams arrived earlier this week and began quarantining in their hotel rooms. Players must turn in two negative tests over two straight days before participating in team activities.
  • Venues: Teams will travel between San Antonio, San Marcos and Austin with games at the Alamodome (two arenas), UTSA, Saint Mary's University, Texas State and UT Austin.

ICYMI: UConn's Paige Bueckers became the third freshman to make the AP All-America first team, joining Maya Moore and Courtney Paris.

  • First team: Bueckers (UConn), Dana Evans (Louisville), Aliyah Boston (South Carolina), Rhyne Howard (Kentucky), NaLyssa Smith (Baylor)
  • Second team: Elissa Cunane (NC State), Naz Hillmon (Michigan), Aari McDonald (Arizona), Caitlin Clark (Iowa), Charli Collier (Texas)
  • Third team: Natasha Mack (Oklahoma State), Ashley Owusu (Maryland), Michaela Onyenwere (UCLA), Kiana Williams (Stanford), Chelsea Dungee (Arkansas)

Go deeper:

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.