March Madness 2017: Friday Early Games Live Thread

Yesterday’s NCAA Tournament action was surprisingly devoid of big upsets, with the exception of the one literally everyone knew was coming. Looking at you, Middle Tennessee.

This afternoon doesn’t appear to offer much hope, either. There are a couple of teams widely expected to score upsets, but neither sits higher than an 11 seed, and that’s not really powerful enough to be called “big”.

But nobody is going to express much surprise if Rhode Island sits Creighton down, and Oklahoma State beating Michigan wouldn’t rattle many cages either. If there’s any real hope for a serious shake-up, you’re going to have to look to Iona, and that’s largely a function of Oregon being questionable at the moment.

Here’s your early schedule. We’ll include the late schedule in the open thread for the very first game of the evening flight, one which includes some felines of the purple persuasion.

But that’s not all. The women’s tournament kicks off today over on the ESPN networks. As usual, upsets will be at a premium, but a pair of Big 12 teams are in action early as Texas and West Virginia take the court.