NCAA Tournament 2015: Bracket Picks, Live Stream for Thursday's Round 2 Schedule

There are certainly bigger events over the course of the sports year, but it is tough to beat the excitement of the first two days of the NCAA tournament. 

With 32 games in two days, most of them likely to go down to the wire, there is simply no way to not enjoy yourself. Things will really kick off Thursday with a loaded slate full of a number of exciting games that could go either way.

Whether you are filling out a bracket or just want to watch the games, here is a look at a full schedule for the upcoming set of games along with predictions for each.

Time (ET)	Matchup	TV	Pick
12:15 p.m.	No. 3 Notre Dame vs. No. 14 Northeastern	CBS	Notre Dame
12:40 p.m.	No. 3 Iowa State vs. No. 14 UAB	truTV	Iowa State
1:40 p.m.	No. 3 Baylor vs. No. 14 Georgia State	TBS	Baylor
2:10 p.m.	No. 2 Arizona vs. No. 15 Texas Southern	TNT	Arizona
2:45 p.m.	No. 6 Butler vs. No. 11 Texas	CBS	Texas
3:10 p.m.	No. 6 SMU vs. No. 11 UCLA	truTV	SMU
4:10 p.m.	No. 6 Xavier vs. No. 11 Ole Miss	TBS	Ole Miss
4:40 p.m.	No. 7 VCU vs. No. 10 Ohio State	TNT	Ohio State
6:50 p.m.	No. 1 Villanova vs. No. 16 Lafayette	TBS	Villanova
7:10 p.m.	No. 8 Cincinnati vs. No. 9 Purdue	CBS	Purdue
7:20 p.m.	No. 4 North Carolina vs. No. 13 Harvard	TNT	North Carolina
7:27 p.m.	No. 5 Utah vs. No. 12 Stephen F. Austin	truTV	Utah
9:20 p.m.	No. 8 North Carolina State vs. No. 9 LSU	TBS	NC State
9:40 p.m.	No. 1 Kentucky vs. No. 16 Hampton	CBS	Kentucky
9:50 p.m.	No. 5 Arkansas vs. No. 12 Wofford	TNT	Arkansas
9:57 p.m.	No. 4 Georgetown vs. No. 13 Eastern Washington	truTV	E. Washington

Note: All games are available for viewing online at March Madness Live.

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Closest Calls

No. 8 Cincinnati vs. No. 9 Purdue

Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press

Purdue remained on the bubble for most of the season thanks to some miserable play earlier in the year. Losses to Gardner-Webb and North Florida were simply inexcusable.

However, the squad turned it on for the second half of the season behind the play of center A.J. Hammons. Watching him battle Frank Kaminsky in the Big Ten semifinals, Chris Carlin of SNY had plenty of praise:

The 7'0" center shared time with fellow big man Isaac Haas earlier in the year, but he has since taken over as the primary interior player on a team. Down the stretch, he has proved to be one of the better interior defenders in the nation with 2.9 blocks per game.

This is bad news for Cincinnati, which gets most of its points in the paint. The Bearcats struggle to shoot from the outside and will have a tough time scoring at all in this one.

Cincinnati also does a great job with its interior defense, but Purdue will find other ways to score and squeeze out a close win.

Prediction: Purdue 58, Cincinnati 53

No. 8 North Carolina State vs. No. 9 LSU

Unlike a typical 8-9 game, these are two teams that can do serious damage for the rest of this tournament. Of course, each one has to find a way to get past the other.

LSU comes through with a dominant low-post tandem of Jarell Martin and Jordan Mickey, which even impressed North Carolina State coach Mark Gottfried, via David James Gray of The Daily Reveille:

The truth is, few teams anywhere in the nation have a tandem like this one—capable of pounding the ball inside as well as keeping opponents out of the paint. Mickey is also apparently over an injury, according to ESPN's Jeff Goodman:

On the other hand, North Carolina State is in good shape because it doesn't need to get into the lane to score. The guard trio of Trevor Lacey, Anthony "Cat" Barber and Ralston Turner can light up the scoreboard on its own and carry the team.

With BeeJay Anya capable of at least slowing down Martin and Mickey in the post, the Wolfpack should be able to escape with the win.

Prediction: North Carolina State 68, LSU 66

No. 7 VCU vs. No. 10 Ohio State

Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press

The big story for VCU over the past few weeks was the inability to recover after losing Briante Weber for the season with a knee injury. Without its point guard and best defender, the Rams struggled on both ends of the floor.

Fortunately, they seem to be past these problems, as shown with a tournament title in the Atlantic 10. Wally Szczerbiak of CBS Sports gave his thoughts after the conference championship game:

Despite the recent success, VCU is still not quite as good without one of the top defensive players in college basketball history. This is a bad thing when facing a team that can break the pressure defense with excellent guard play.

D'Angelo Russell, a player vying to become the top point guard taken in the upcoming NBA draft, leads Ohio State. Interestingly, he isn't even the lead guard on his own team, as Shannon Scott also does a great job of setting up teammates.

Considering both players average more than five assists per game, it's clear they both have great vision while consistently making good decisions. This is what is needed to beat the "Havoc" defense of VCU, giving the Buckeyes an advantage to pull off the upset.

Prediction: Ohio State 74, VCU 71

Follow Rob Goldberg on Twitter. If it's March, I'm talking about pretty much nothing but college basketball.