March Madness 2019 Schedule: Bracket, Round-by-Round Dates, TV Info and More
March 17, 2019
With Selection Sunday wrapped up, only two days remain before the 2019 NCAA tournament tips off.
The First Four round begins Tuesday and carries over to Wednesday before the first round gets underway Thursday.
The Big Dance will wind its way to Minneapolis for the Final Four. The semifinals are April 6, with the national championship game April 8.
Here's a look at the full 68-team tournament bracket and the dates for each of the seven rounds.
March Madness Bracket
A printable bracket is available on NCAA.com.
Round-by-Round Dates
First Four: March 19-20
First Round: March 21-22
Second Round: March 23-24
Sweet 16: March 28-29
Elite Eight: March 30-31
Final Four: April 6
National Championship: April 8
TV Info
Television coverage of the 2019 NCAA tournament will be on CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV.
Championship Contenders to Watch
Duke Blue Devils
No team is more talented than the Duke Blue Devils, who feature three players likely to go in the top 10 of the 2019 NBA draft.
Duke has looked a little more mortal since Zion Williamson suffered a knee sprain in the team's 88-72 loss to the North Carolina Tar Heels on Feb. 20. Without Williamson, the Blue Devils finished 3-2 to close out the regular season.
He returned for the ACC tournament and averaged 27.0 points and 10.0 rebounds as Duke won a conference title. The Blue Devils again look to be the best team in the country.
They are a bit top-heavy, which their performance to close out the regular season showed. Nobody can stop Duke, though, as long as Williamson is playing like he did in the conference tournament.
Gonzaga Bulldogs
Two years removed from finishing as runner-up to North Carolina, Gonzaga should be back in the Final Four in 2019.
Because it plays in the West Coast Conference, the concerns about Gonzaga's strength of schedule will always be in the back of fans' minds. The Zags beat Duke but lost to North Carolina and the Tennessee Volunteers during their non-conference run.
Offensively, Gonzaga is setting the pace in Division I. The Bulldogs rank first in points per game (88.8), first in field-goal percentage (.536), tied for 70th in three-point percentage (.367) and 15th in turnovers (10.4).
Losing to the Saint Mary's Gaels in the West Coast Conference tournament final could be a blessing disguise for the Bulldogs. Gonzaga's players will want to atone for that disappointing defeat when they open the Big Dance.
Virginia Cavaliers
The Virginia Cavaliers suffered the ignominy of losing to the 16th-seeded UMBC Retrievers last year. In general, the team has fallen short of expectations in the tournament, failing to advance past the Elite Eight under Tony Bennett.
Virginia could turn that narrative around finally.
The Cavaliers are their usual stingy selfs defensively. Unlike in some years, they have the offense to match. They're No. 2 in adjusted offense and No. 5 in adjusted defense, per KenPom.com. Virginia is shooting 41.4 percent from beyond the arc as a team, third-best in the nation.
Virginia will obviously look to keep the pace extremely slow in the tournament. Should the Cavaliers find themselves in more of a track meet, they should have the pieces to alter their approach and keep up.
Tennessee Volunteers
Entering the 2018-19 season, some fans in Knoxville, Tennessee, harbored hopes of finally seeing the Tennessee Volunteers in the Final Four. The Vols showed this year that goal wasn't unrealistic.
Grant Williams is doing a little bit of everything for Tennessee, averaging 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.4 blocks. Admiral Schofield is averaging 16.6 points and shooting an efficient 41.7 clip from the perimeter.
Tennessee is 34th in adjusted defense, which isn't bad in a vacuum but a problem for a team with national title aspirations. The Auburn Tigers shot 40.6 percent from the field and made 15 three-pointers in their 84-64 SEC championship win over the Vols.
Michigan Wolverines
While this wasn't necessarily supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Michigan Wolverines, they had to replace Moritz Wagner and Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman. Perhaps a step backward would be inevitable after finishing runners-up to the national champion Villanova Wildcats.
Instead, Ignas Brazdeikis has effectively filled the void left by Wagner. The freshman forward was averaging 14.9 points and 5.2 rebounds and shooting 41.5 percent from beyond the arc prior to Sunday's loss to the Michigan State Spartans.
Michigan was also holding opponents to 58.8 points per game, third-fewest in Division I and ranked second in adjusted defense.
North Carolina lost a heartbreaker to Villanova in 2016 and won a national title in 2017. Nobody should be surprised if the Wolverines follow that pattern.