Trips to the Sweet 16 are on the line in the NCAA tournament on Saturday. Here are 4 things you need to know

By CNN Newsource

Published March 21, 2026 5:00 AM

By Kyle Feldscher, CNN

(CNN) — The chaos of the opening round of the men’s NCAA tournament is behind us and spots in the Sweet 16 are on the line on Saturday.

The women’s NCAA tournament is still rolling strong in the opening round after a slate of games that went heavily in favor of the top seeds on Friday, and the nation’s top team is taking the court as UConn looks to repeat as champions.

It’s the first weekend of the NCAA tournament, here’s what you need to know.

Top seeds under the microscope

Duke and Michigan are the two No. 1 seeds playing on Saturday and both are looking to reassert themselves after unexpectedly close (for the most part, in the Wolverines’ case) games on Thursday.

The 16-seed Howard Bison hung with Michigan for the first half of their game in the opening round before the Wolverines woke up and ran away with things to win by 21. It was a comfortable win in the end but a dominant Michigan team that is a popular pick to win it all was expected to be in the clear from the opening minutes. They’ll face a Saint Louis team that absolutely destroyed Georgia on Thursday in one of the most unexpectedly one-sided games of the tournament.

But it’s Duke that has the most to prove. The top seed in the entire tournament was pushed to the limit by 16-seed Siena on Thursday. The Saints took the lead from the Blue Devils with about 12 minutes to go in the first half and held onto it until there were four-and-a-half minutes to play in the game. The Blue Devils were never really able to pull away and escaped with a six point win.

Now Duke has a feisty TCU team that held off an Ohio State comeback on Thursday in the tournament’s opening game.

Cinderella looks to hold off midnight a bit longer

VCU and High Point are the tournament’s lone true Cinderellas after the first two days after the mid-major teams pulled off the traditional 12-seed over a 5-seed upset on Thursday.

They both have their work cut out for them if they want to extend their season for another week.

VCU comes up against 3-seed Illinois, fresh off a 25-8 season and a second-place finish in the Big Ten (tied with Nebraska and Michigan State at 15-5). The Illini are, as per usual, huge – they’ve got two seven-footers and a slew of other big forwards that could dominate the smaller Rams.

High Point will play in Saturday’s final game against John Calipari’s Arkansas, which cruised over Hawaii on Thursday. Calipari is a Hall of Fame coach who is all too used to this stage and will be relishing another opportunity to take the Razorbacks to the Sweet 16. His team isn’t sneaking up on anyone this year as they did in 2025 when they were a 10-seed.

The Panthers meanwhile, are coming off their school’s first NCAA tournament victory and their coach is looking to make a statement. After beating Wisconsin on Thursday, Flynn Clayman made a passionate case for the strength of mid-majors in his postgame interview. Expect him to bring that same fire to Saturday’s showdown.

Lone Star underdogs

It’s not often that Texas and Texas A&M are going to be mentioned in the same breath as being similar. In fact, the heated rivals would probably rather be kept as separate as possible at all times.

But on Saturday, they’re both double-digit seeds who are looking to make up for lackluster seasons with some tournament magic.

It’s not really fair to qualify the Longhorns and Aggies as Cinderellas, but no one really expected them to be Sweet 16 teams before tipoff of their games. Texas made it through the First Four on Tuesday and had to face BYU and AJ Dybantsa, while A&M was going up against mid-major powerhouse Saint Mary’s.

The Longhorns had to sweat, eventually grinding the game out in the final minutes after the Cougars couldn’t quite get it together in crunchtime, and the Aggies simply rolled in their opening game.

A&M has a tall task in front of them in the form of Kelvin Sampson’s Houston, a defensive powerhouse looking for redemption after falling to Florida in the national title game a year ago. The 2-seed Cougars barely broke a sweat against Idaho, winning by 31 in their opening game.

Texas, meanwhile, will have Gonzaga and that could be an opportunity. The Zags escaped against Kennesaw State on Thursday, watching their double-digit lead disappear in the final minutes before toughing it out in the final minutes. It’ll be Texas’ third game since Tuesday, but First Four teams have a tendency to ride the good vibes all the way into the tournament’s second weekend.

UConn looks to repeat

In the women’s bracket, it’s all about the Huskies.

Undefeated UConn starts their tournament quest to repeat as champions with a showdown against the University of Texas-San Antonio and should roll. They might roll all the way to the desert, as they appear to be in a class of their own in this year’s field.

Led by top scorer Sarah Strong and star guard Azzi Fudd, the Huskies are a juggernaut and it’s very possible that they might not face a real test until the Final Four in Phoenix early next month.

Playing at home in Storrs, expect the Huskies to put this one out of reach early and get themselves ready for what’s over the horizon.

Men’s schedule

No. 1 Michigan vs. No. 9 Saint Louis at 12:10 p.m. ET on CBS
No. 3 Michigan State vs. No. 6 Louisville at 2:45 p.m. ET on CBS
No. 1 Duke vs. No. 9 TCU at 5:15 p.m. ET on CBS
No. 2 Houston vs. No 10 Texas A&M at 6:10 p.m. ET on TNT
No. 3 Gonzaga vs. No. 11 Texas at 7:10 p.m. ET on truTV/TBS
No. 3 Illinois vs. No. 11 VCU at 7:50 p.m. ET on CBS
No. 4 Nebraska vs. No. 5 Vanderbilt at 8:45 p.m. ET on TNT
No. 4 Arkansas vs. No. 12 High Point at 9:45 p.m. on truTV/TBS

Women’s schedule

No. 3 Ohio State vs. No. 14 Howard at 11:30 a.m. ET on ESPN2
No. 3 Louisville vs. No. 14 Vermont at noon ET on ESPN
No. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 16 Southern at 1 p.m. ET on ABC
No. 7 Georgia vs. No. 10 Virginia at 1:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2
No. 6 Notre Dame vs. No. 11 Fairfield at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN
No. 5 Kentucky vs. No. 12 James Madison at 2:30 p.m. ET on ESPNU
No. 6 Alabama vs. No. 11 Rhode Island at 2:30 p.m. on ESPNEWS
No. 1 UConn vs. No. 16 UTSA at 3 p.m. ET on ABC
No. 8 Clemson vs No. 9 USC at 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2
No. 2 Iowa vs. No. 15 Fairleigh Dickinson at 4 p.m. ET on ESPN
No. 4 West Virginia vs. No. 13 Miami (Ohio) at 5 p.m. ET on ESPNU
No. 8 Iowa State vs. No. 9 Syracuse at 5:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2
No. 2 Vanderbilt vs. No. 15 High Point at 7 p.m. ET on ESPNEWS
No. 8 Oklahoma State vs. No. 9 Princeton at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2
No. 7 Illinois vs. No. 10 Colorado at 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2
No. 1 UCLA vs. No. 16 California Baptist University at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN

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