March Madness 2023 Live Stream: NCAA Tournament TV Schedule, Watch Basketball Online Streaming Thursday

The 2023 NCAA Tournament games and pools are about to be locked in, and the time for picks and predictions is almost over. Now is the time for sports fans across the country and beyond to commit to the madness we celebrate every March. The official start of the tournament has already passed with the First Four in Dayton, but for many the wall-to-wall first-round action marks the real start of the big dance.

Action will begin in Birmingham with No. 8 seed Maryland and No. 9 seed West Virginia, the undercard for the 2023 tournament debut of No. 1 overall seed Alabama, taking the field in the second game of that the site against No. 16 seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. In total, Thursday’s action will feature 16 games from four different host sites, offering non-stop thrills from this unique single-elimination championship for nearly 12 hours.

Thursday’s first-round action features three of the four No. 1 seeds in the field and four No. 2 seeds there as well. It also marks Duke’s NCAA Tournament debut in the post-Mike Krzyzewski era, as Jon Scheyer looks to lead the Blue Devils to the same championship heights he reached as a player and tantalizing matchups in the middle, like the meeting between two teams that just finished as second to a No. 1 seed in their respective major conference tournaments with No. 7 seed Texas A&M facing No. 10 seed Penn State.

But there’s so much to dig into on a day where you’ll definitely need multiple screens, so let’s get into the key stories for Thursday’s first-round action.

No. 1 overall seed Alabama begins its quest for program glory

Alabama has never reached the Final Four, making only the Elite Eight once (2004) in 23 previous NCAA Tournament appearances dating back to 1975. But here is Nate Oats, leading a team that went 29-5, reached the No. 1 in the AP Top 25 poll for the first time in 20 years and won both the SEC regular season and conference tournament championships. The Crimson Tide clinched the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament, giving it favorable site selections and according to many has one of the most manageable paths to the Final Four of any No. 1 seed. Led by Brandon Miller, a First-Team All-American and likely top-five NBA draft pick, Alabama will remain one of the biggest stories in all of sports every time it takes the floor in this tournament.

Not only is this football powerhouse on the verge of making school history on the hardwood, but the team will also be in the spotlight for its connection to a fatal shooting that left a 23-year-old mother and Alabama player Darius dead Miller. , is charged with murder. Miller has been one of the sport’s shining stars on the court, but his connection to that tragic night will carry national interest beyond the world of college basketball or even the sports world. Through it all Miller, who only recently became available to the media in the SEC Tournament, has been outstanding on the floor. Alabama is one of the biggest stories in the sport because of its excellence, but since mid-January it has also been a lightning rod for debate, discussion and concern. When Alabama takes the field against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (2:45 p.m. ET on CBS) it is expected to win and win big, starting a big tournament campaign. With each additional win, the spotlight will grow brighter, bringing more eyes to this amazing player, this incredible team chasing program history, and at the same time one of the great tragedies associated with the sport in recent years.

Bill Self is likely to return to the sidelines for the reigning champions

Kansas coach Bill Self was hospitalized before the Big 12 Tournament and underwent a procedure to treat blocked arteries in his heart. The Hall of Fame coach who has won two national championships with the Jayhawks (2008, 2022) was released Sunday and reportedly planned to return to the team for the NCAA tournament.

Assistant coach Norm Roberts, who served as interim coach for the Jayhawks’ second Big 12 Tournament campaign, told reporters that Self attended practice Tuesday and Wednesday and participated in all team meetings this week. However, the self was not part of Kansas’ media availability for Thursday’s game against 16-seed Howard (2 p.m. ET, TNT). All-American Jaylen Wilson told reporters he “looks great,” but his return and status quickly became a story in Kansas’ efforts to be the first repeat national champion since Florida in 2006-07.

A pair of high-octane No. 12 seeds go for the most classic upset of the tournament

Anyone with extensive post-NCAA tournament experience or completing a bracket game knows the tradition of the No. 12-over-5 upset. The way the committee lays out the field, No. 12 seeds often end up being some of the best teams from mid-major conferences that captured their championship automatic bid. That’s true again here in 2023, and there are two No. 12 seeds with plenty of buzz heading into their first-round matches on Thursday.

If Oral Roberts rings the bell, it’s because it’s the same team that beat Ohio State to No. 15 in 2021 and made it all the way to the Sweet 16 before a two-point loss to Arkansas. The Golden Eagles are still led by the same coach in Paul Mills and the same star player in Max Abamas. They’ll begin their tournament with No. 12-over-5 upset dreams on the biggest stage of the day, one of the first games in the primetime window against Duke (7:10 p.m. ET, CBS).

Charleston went 31-3 this season behind a blistering pace, a string of 3-pointers, and finished the regular season on a six-game tear that saw the Cougars average 88.9 points per game. Keeping Charleston at bay will be the task for an experienced San Diego State team when the two meet in Orlando (3:10 p.m., TruTV), which is trying to shake its own NCAA Tournament woes together with some conference-level weight (more on that below).

The Mountain West is looking to rewrite the tournament narrative

The Mountain West placed four teams in the NCAA Tournament in 2022, the most for the league since 2013. Unfortunately, each team lost its first game in the tournament, and all lost to a lower-ranked team. It called into question MW’s heavy representation on the field, taking the shine off what has been a banner year for the conference. Well now the MW has four teams again and three of them play on Thursday with a chance to turn the narrative around. First, No. 10 Utah State takes on No. 7 Missouri State (1:40 p.m. ET, TNT) and then the aforementioned No. 5 San Diego State tries to avoid an upset against No. 12 Charleston State (3:10 p.m. ET, TruTV). Finally, it will be No. 10 Boise State taking on No. 7 Northwestern (7:35 p.m. ET) in what is expected to be a defensive battle. Unlike last year, the MWC isn’t the top seed in every game, but is either a short favorite or a slight underdog in all three. A multi-game win Thursday would be a big win for a conference that has provided outstanding ball in the regular season the past two years but has failed to replicate that excellence in the tournament.

See the complete TV and streaming schedule for Thursday’s 2023 NCAA Tournament action below:

First round

Thursday, March 16