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March Madness 2024 live updates | First round of NCAA basketball tournament set to begin
March Madness this year comes at a time of great uncertainty in college sports. (AP video by Ted Shaffrey) (AP production by Javier Arciga)
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Get your brackets ready — March Madness is back. The first round of the 2024 NCAA men’s tournament tips off today at 12:15 p.m. EDT as the Mississippi State Bulldogs take on the Michigan State Spartans.
Here’s what to know:
● How to watch: All of the men’s games will be aired on CBS, TBS, TNT or TruTV and their digital platforms, including Paramount+. A full broadcast schedule is available on the NCAA website.
● Need help with your picks?: Check out the AP’s bracket guide or and see which teams voters picked in the AP’s Top 25 polls.
● Bracket updates: Keep across the games with the AP’s men’s and women’s brackets.
Does your state allow March Madness betting?
FILE – A man makes a sports bet at the Borgata casino in Atlantic City, N.J., on March 19, 2021, the first full day of the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry, File)
For the sixth straight year, the number of states allowing legal sports betting has expanded since the last rendition of March Madness.
A total of 38 states and the District of Columbia now allow some form of sports betting, including 30 states and the nation’s capital that allow online wagering.
▶ Read more about what states allow March Madness betting.
How bracketologists are using AI this March Madness
FILE – Lisa Moeller takes a photo of the NCAA bracket for the NCAA college basketball tournament on the side of the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis, March 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)
College hoops fans might want to think again before pinning their hopes of a perfect March Madness bracket on artificial intelligence.
While the advancement of artificial intelligence into everyday life has made “AI” one of the buzziest phrases of the past year, its application in bracketology circles is not so new. Even so, the annual bracket contests still provide plenty of surprises for computer science aficionados who’ve spent years honing their models with past NCAA Tournament results.
They have found that machine learning alone cannot quite solve the limited data and incalculable human elements of “The Big Dance.”
“All these things are art and science. And they’re just as much human psychology as they are statistics,” said Chris Ford, a data analyst who lives in Germany. “You have to actually understand people. And that’s what’s so tricky about it.”
▶ Read more about how bracketologists are using AI.
BYU’s Khalifa playing without food or water while observing Ramadan
BYU center Aly Khalifa (50) catches a pass as Baylor center Yves Missi (21) looks on during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, in Provo, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
BYU forward Aly Khalifa will play against Duquesne on Thursday without having any food or drink after sunrise as he observes Ramadan during the NCAA Tournament.
The native of Alexandria, Egypt, probably could have taken an exception to one of the Five Pillars of Islam because of travel involved in the college basketball tournament. But instead, he chose to work with the BYU sports science and medicine staff to ensure he could play while observing the fast.
Khalifa planned to wake up at about 4:30 a.m. Thursday to eat and pray, then head to the arena for an 11:40 a.m. tipoff.
▶ Read more about BYU’s Aly Khalifa.
WATCH: Purdue is back in March Madness after last year’s shocking loss
Purdue is back in March Madness with a No. 1 seed after last year’s shocking loss to 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson. Only one team has faced that challenge: Virginia, which followed its 2018 loss to UMBC by winning a title.
For Tom Izzo, a 26th straight tourney bid wasn’t a layup
Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo yells from the sideline during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Oakland , Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
March Madness kept Tom Izzo sleepless for more than 24 hours before he heard and saw Michigan State made it into a 26th consecutive NCAA Tournament.
The Hall of Fame coach said he had one of the most anxious days of his career on Sunday, sensing his record-breaking streak might get snapped after the Spartans started No. 4 in the AP Top 25 preseason poll and finished an uneven season with five losses in seven games.
Izzo was able to exhale — and get some much-needed sleep — because Michigan State (19-14) was placed in the West Region as a No. 9 seed and matched up with No. 8 seed Mississippi State (21-13) on Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina.
▶ Read more about Tom Izzo’s 26th March Madness bid.
Creighton’s Traudt plays D1 hoops with Type 1 diabetes
FILE – Creighton forward Isaac Traudt (41) shoots a 3-point basket over North Dakota State guard Boden Skunberg (14) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023, in Omaha, Neb. Creighton’s Isaac Traudt is playing at the highest level of college basketball while managing Type 1 diabetes.(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
Creighton’s Isaac Traudt is playing at the highest level of college basketball while managing Type 1 diabetes.
He wears an insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor under his uniform. The CGM tells him his blood glucose level at five-minute intervals. He uses Honey Stinger energy chews to bump up his sugar when the device or his body tell him he’s low.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody put down a packet of chews faster than Isaac,” athletic trainer Ben McNair said. “He can probably put a pack of those down in 10 to 15 seconds.”
▶ Read more about how Traudt manages diabetes on the court.
Health could help to decide this year’s NCAA Tournament
Bill Self feels pretty good about Hunter Dickinson’s availability for the NCAA Tournament. The Kansas coach frankly has no idea what to expect of his other All-America candidate, Kevin McCullar Jr.
And he’s not the only one fretting the health of their teams. Whether it’s Marquette star Tyler Kolek’s oblique injury or Houston big man J’Wan Roberts dealing with some leg soreness, injuries could play a big role in what transpires over the next three weeks.
▶ Read more about what injuries could impact this year’s tournament.
March Madness could be on the way out amid changes in college sports
Tracking the changes upending college sports can be as frenetic as flipping between all the games going down over the first week of March Madness. Ultimately, those changes could impact what America’s favorite basketball tournament looks like in the future — or whether it exists at all.
News about athlete compensation, player unions and realignment dominate discussions. Everything in college sports is open for discussion, interpretation and adjustment. That includes the industry’s most hallowed tradition, the NCAA basketball tournaments, which begin this week and will stretch from coast to coast.
The bottom line behind it all is money.
▶ Read more about how changes to college sports are impacting March Madness.
A progressive approach once led Duquesne to glory
Duquesne forward Dusan Mahorcic (0) reacts with teammates on the bench during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Dayton in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 tournament Thursday, March 14, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter K. Afriyie)
Duquesne’s return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 47 years is putting a spotlight on the team’s storied past.
The small Pittsburgh Catholic school was among the first collegiate programs to heavily recruit Black players like Basketball Hall of Famer Chuck Cooper. The 1955 team that won the National Invitation Tournament had several Black players in the starting lineup.
Keith Dambrot says the program’s rich history is one of the reasons he took the job in 2017. Duquesne faces BYU in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
▶ Read more about Duquesne’s long road back to March Madness.