Let’s get one thing straight right away: the “first round” in the title of this article refers to the Round of 64 of this year’s NCAA Tournament. The NCAA insists on calling this the second round (with the four play-in games being the first round) but, unlike the NCAA, we here at Crave are logical people, so we will use the logical denomination.
Now that we’ve got the semantics out of the way, we can focus on the exciting part — telling you, the discerning viewer, which of the 32 games to be played on Thursday and Friday will be especially worth your time.
Here are the games that will get you off your seat early in March Madness.
Related: March Madness 2015: 34 Things To Know
Dylan Sinn is a freelance contributor for CraveOnline Sports. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSinn or subscribe at Facebook.com/CraveOnlineSports.
Photo Credit: Getty
March Madness Can't Miss Games
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No. 4 Georgetown Hoyas vs. No. 13 Eastern Washington Eagles
Game Info: South Region, Thursday @ 10 p.m. EST on TruTV
Check out the Hoyas’ last five trips to the Dance. See if you can notice a pattern:
2008: Lost in Round of 32 as No. 2 seed to 10 seed Davidson
2010: Lost in Round of 64 as No. 3 seed to 14 seed Ohio University
2011: Lost in Round of 64 as No. 6 seed to 11 seed VCU
2012: Lost in Round of 32 as No. 3 seed to 11 seed NC State
2013: Lost in Round of 64 as No. 2 seed to 15 seed Florida Gulf Coast
That’s right, the mighty Hoyas have seen double-digit seeds upset them in five consecutive tournaments over the last seven years. Although the players on those teams are different from this iteration of John Thompson III’s squad, if you don’t think that streak will be on the back of these players’ minds, you’re crazy.
To make matters worse for Hoya fans, their team’s opponent Thursday is a battled-tested EWU team that boasts a win at Indiana (the Hoosiers’ only loss in their first 16 games at home this year) and close losses at SMU and Cal. The Eagles rank third in the nation in scoring at over 80 points per game, so expect them to try to run against the Hoyas.
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No. 6 Southern Methodist Mustangs vs. No. 11 UCLA Bruins
Intriguing storylines abound in this game between a traditional tournament heavyweight in UCLA and relative newcomer SMU. 74-year old Larry Brown coaches the Mustangs. The last time he was in the NCAA Tournament, he led Kansas to a national title. Of course that was in 1988 and an NBA Championship and Olympic bronze medal separate the two tournaments, but Brown is back.
The owner of over 1,000 NBA wins has built an American Athletic Conference juggernaut in just three seasons in Dallas. This is SMU’s first tournament appearance since 1993 and it will be greeted by a Bruins team out to prove it belongs, as well. UCLA has been the most maligned choice by the tournament selection committee since the brackets were revealed on Sunday with multiple talking heads decrying the pick.
Steve Alford’s Bruins will likely play with a chip on their shoulder but they will have to solve an SMU defense that surrenders less than 60 points per game. Brown’s team is strong and athletic and it guards for 40 minutes every night. UCLA will look to future NBA lottery pick Kevin Looney, who averages 12 points and nine rebounds, to neutralize the advantage the Mustangs almost always hold on the glass.
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No. 6 Butler Bulldogs vs. No. 11 Texas Longhorns
Game info: Midwest Region, Thursday @ 2:45 p.m. on CBS
This is one of the best clashes of style in the entire first round. The Longhorns, ranked in the AP preaseason top 10 have underachieved mightily this season, choking away multiple winnable games in the final moments. Exhibit A is their most recent contest, a Big 12 Tournament defeat against Iowa State in which Texas held a 10-point lead with 3:40 to play and coughed it up.
After finishing 8-10 during the conference season, the Longhorns snuck into the tournament and were rewarded with a matchup against a team they clearly have more talent than.
Butler is the higher seed here but many experts are picking UT, which is bigger and faster than the Bulldogs. Texas’ Achilles heel all season has been turnovers; it ranks 338th in the nation in turnover margin and Butler is solid at pressuring the ball on defense. If Kellen Dunham and Alex Barlow are hitting outside shots for the Bulldogs, as they habitually do, this game will go down to the wire.
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No. 5 West Virginia Mountaineers vs. No. 12 Buffalo Bulls
Game Info: Midwest Region, Friday @ 2:10 p.m. EST on TNT
Every year a 12 seed upsets a 5, often multiple times in the same tournament. This has become a trendy upset pick, as it should. The Bulls are the real deal and will give WVU all it can handle and then some. The biggest storyline here is Buffalo’s Bobby Hurley making his inaugural appearance in the Big Dance as a head coach after winning two national titles in his playing career at Duke.
Hurley, in his second season at Buffalo, led the Bulls to a 23-9 record this season and Mid-American Conference (MAC) regular season and tournament titles. Every storyline in this tournament centers on, “Who can beat Kentucky?” Buffalo already had a crack at Big Blue Nation and led at halftime at Rupp Arena before falling. It also hung with Wisconsin at the Kohl Center better than a number of Big Ten teams this season.
For added excitement, this will be an up-and-down game, as both teams like to push the ball in transition; the Bulls and Mountaineers each rank among the top 40 in the nation in points per game. West Virginia is no slouch itself, finishing 11-7 in what many considered the nation’s best conference this year, the Big 12. Bob Huggins’ team will have to find a way to stop Justin Moss, Buffalo’s do-it-all forward. The 6-foot-7 Moss averages 18 points and nine rebounds and has led UB to a current eight-game win streak.
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No. 7 Wichita State Shockers vs. No. 10 Indiana Hoosiers
Game Info: Midwest Region, Friday @ 2:45 p.m. on CBS
Your trigger finger will have to be fast on the remote to flip back and forth between WVU-UB and WSU-IU, but it will be worth it; both of these games promise to be high-scoring and hotly-contested. I’m an IU student so the latter might seem to be a biased opinion, but I truly believe it will be one of the most exciting games of the first round.
Fans have been complaining all season about how the college version of basketball has become too slow and methodical. That will not be the case here. The Hoosiers’ offense operates like an NBA unit, spacing the floor and starting four or five players who can knock down triples. On the other side of the court, IU struggles mightily to defend, meaning that WSU and elite point guard Fred VanVleet will have plenty of chances to drive and kick.
Many experts have written off IU in this game thanks to its late season struggles; the Hoosiers lost nine of 14 after a 15-4 start. Take my word for it, though, I’ve been watching IU all season and it struggles most against teams with a strong inside presence. The Shockers do not have that; they are guard-oriented like IU, which usually makes for a game played at warp speed. The Shockers have the added motivation of (likely) getting in-state rival Kansas in the round of 32, raising the stakes for the oft-overlooked mid-major.
