March Madness Schedule 2015: TV Info, Live Stream and Tuesday 1st-Round Picks

The decision to expand the NCAA tournament field was met with some skepticism and criticism when it happened, but the result is simply more “Madness.” Perhaps more importantly, it shortened the seemingly insufferable gap between the end of Selection Sunday and the start of play from four days to two.

Who’s to argue with that?

The tournament starts Tuesday with two games in Dayton between two Cinderella dreamers as No. 16 seeds and two bubble teams that just snuck into the field as No. 11 seeds.

With that in mind, here is a look at all of the essential information leading up to the tournament and a couple of predictions for Tuesday’s showdowns.

All Your Bracket Essentials 

• Download the Printable Bracket
• Play the Free Bracket Challenge

TV Info and Schedule

Date	Round	Network
March 17-18	First Round (Dayton, Ohio)	TruTV
March 19 & 21	Second and Third Round (Jacksonville, Florida; Louisville, Kentucky; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Portland, Oregon)	CBS, TBS, TNT TBS
March 20 & 22	Second and Third Round (Charlotte, North Carolina; Columbus, Ohio; Omaha, Nebraska; Seattle, Washington)	CBS, TBS, TNT TBS
March 26	Sweet 16 (Midwest and West Regions)	CBS, TBS, TNT
March 27	Sweet 16 (South and East Regions)	CBS, TBS, TNT
March 28	Elite Eight (Midwest and West Regions)	TBS
March 29	Elite Eight (South and East Regions)	CBS
April 4	Final Four (Indianapolis, Indiana)	CBS
April 6	National Championship Game (Indianapolis, Indiana)	CBS

Streaming: All games will be shown on March Madness Live.

Bracket

Tuesday Predictions 

Midwest Region: No. 16 Hampton vs. No. 16 Manhattan

Brett Carlsen/Getty Images

Let’s be honest here—the real winner of the game between Hampton and Manhattan could be the loser considering the victor has to battle with the mighty Kentucky Wildcats in the round of 64.

While playing Kentucky may be a terrifying prospect for you or I, these teams are likely more concerned with picking up an NCAA tournament victory in Dayton. Winning in the First Four games counts just as much in the record book as winning in the round of 64, so the motivation is certainly in place.

Hampton finished with a losing record at 16-17, but it won the Mid-Eastern Atlantic Conference tournament title with an impressive three-game streak. It also got a little lucky that regular-season champion North Carolina Central, which finished with a 16-0 league record, was upset by Delaware State in the tournament.

Hampton’s strength is its balanced scoring attack and strong rebounding game. Five different players average at least 9.7 points per game (with four in double figures), including leading scorer Dwight Meikle.

Meikle is a 6’7” mismatch who averaged 13 points and a team-high 7.5 rebounds per game during the season. He can attack from the outside but isn’t afraid to mix it up down low either. The only question now is whether Meikle can play after injuring his ankle during the conference tournament.

Even if Meikle can go, he will be at less than 100 percent. That will be too much for the Pirates to overcome against a solid Manhattan team that hung with Florida State, Rutgers, Pittsburgh and Massachusetts during the regular season and knocked off a dangerous Iona team in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title game.

The Jaspers are battle-tested and playing their best basketball of the season (seven wins in their last eight games). They will be too much for a Hampton squad that could be without its best player. 

Get ready for Kentucky, Manhattan.

West Region: No. 11 BYU vs. No. 11 Ole Miss

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

This matchup between BYU and Ole Miss is fascinating because there is a chance BYU can emerge from Dayton and make a deep run in the bracket if it can get past the Rebels. 

ESPN’s Joe Lunardi thinks the Cougars will not only beat Ole Miss but also take down Xavier and Baylor on the way to the Sweet 16, as play-by-play announcer Robbie Bullough passed along:

After all, BYU handed Gonzaga one of its only two losses on the season behind one of the best offenses in the country. The Cougars were second in the nation in points per game, thanks largely to the combination of Tyler Haws and Kyle Collinsworth. Haws averaged 21.9 points per game, while Collinsworth added 14 per night. (Collinsworth also averaged a team-best 8.7 boards a night.)

The Cougars' prowess on offense and rebounding (15th in the nation in boards per game) will be a serious problem for an Ole Miss team that stumbled down the stretch with four losses in five games. The Rebels inexplicably lost to Vanderbilt and South Carolina in their final two games and looked much different than the team that beat Oregon and Arkansas and took Kentucky to overtime earlier in the year.

Ole Miss just doesn’t match up with BYU because of its defense.

The Rebels finished 125th in Ken Pomeroy’s pace-adjusted defensive efficiency rankings and won’t have much of a chance to stop a BYU offense that finished ninth in the corresponding offensive rankings.

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Even though this BYU team looks great on paper (at least offensively), it did barely sneak into the tournament, which made for a nerve-wrecking Selection Sunday. Collinsworth didn’t seem too worried, though, via Jay Drew of The Salt Lake Tribune: 

"

Yeah, it was literally the last bracket. But I figured we would get in, at least a play-in game. But you try not to think about it and you realize it is not in your hands. You just wait. And we are just excited we got in.

"

That type of confidence will serve the Cougars well on the court. They are going to be playing at least two games in the tournament. 

Predicted Tuesday Winners: Manhattan and BYU

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