Culture
‘Can’t-miss’ Men’s NCAA Tournament games on Thursday and Friday: truTV FTW?
The NCAA Tournament’s 32-game feast across Thursday and Friday is one of the most highly anticipated TV stretches of the sports year. You should watch as many games as you can, but if you need to prioritize, here are the “can’t-miss” ones to watch, informed by full-bracket predictions from The Athletic’s Brendan Marks, C.J. Moore and Lindsay Schnell. — Dan Shanoff
THURSDAY
The best game
(7) Missouri at (10) Drake
7:35 p.m. ET, truTV
Inexplicably, the best game of the first round is shunted to truTV, which is known mostly for the perennial March query: “How do I find truTV?”
Missouri made it through the gauntlet of the SEC schedule, but Drake — led by a former DII coaching legend and a couple of up-transfers he brought with him — has the official “Team Nobody Wants To Play” label. Mizzou loves to push the pace; Drake cranks the pace down about as low as it can go. A fascinating game on every level.
CJ Moore: Drake will be a trendy upset pick, and for good reason. The Bulldogs are 3-0 against high-major teams this year, Ben McCollum is one of the best coaches in college basketball, and he has Bennett Stirtz, whom a rival Missouri Valley coach recently told me is the best guard in the country. The Tigers rely on turnovers and prefer to play fast; McCollum’s teams always control the tempo. He also hasn’t lost in the first round of an NCAA Tournament since 2018.
Making things even more complicated, the other two games in that early-evening Thursday block are outstanding: No. 13 seed Yale in an Upset Special vs. No. 4 seed Texas A&M (7:25 p.m. ET, TBS) and a Hall of Fame coaching matchup between John Calipari (No. 10 seed Arkansas) and Bill Self (No. 7 seed Kansas) at 7:10 p.m. ET on CBS. (“Multi-view” FTW!)
Blow off work for…
(4) Purdue vs. (13) High Point
12:40 p.m. ET, truTV
Another possible Upset Special! High Point will have most of America saying “Who?” But also: Who cares, upsets are amazing! If High Point keeps it close (which it can through its high-octane offense and personnel tailor-made to match up well with Purdue), this will be the game your group chat is texting about.
Brendan Marks: Purdue has lost six of its past nine games, with its interior defense being exposed. Over those last nine games? A horrid 196th nationally in adjusted efficiency, per Torvik; opponents are making 63.3 percent of their 2s during that stretch, which is second worst in all of DI. No, thank you! High Point is dancing for the first time in program history because of Alan Huss’ top-25 offense, which just so happens to be the ninth-best 2-point shooting team in the field. Smells like a mismatch. High Point is the easiest upset pick in the region.
Amazing back-to-back-to-back
(5) Clemson vs. (12) McNeese
3:15 p.m. ET, truTV
(6) BYU vs. (11) VCU
4:05 p.m. ET, TNT
(8) Gonzaga vs. (9) Georgia
4:35 p.m. ET, TBS
Settle in, because the late-afternoon window is the best string of games of the entire first round.
• Clemson checks in as the 12th-most likely team to win it all; its tournament could end Thursday afternoon against Will Wade’s fearless McNeese squad.
• BYU’s “size, depth and offensive execution” versus VCU’s “guard play and defensive prowess” (per our Bracket Big Board). If styles make fights, this is a phenomenal fight.
• Ranked No. 9 in the country by the essential KenPom, Gonzaga nonetheless got stuck with an No. 8 seed; Georgia is under pressure, as the first SEC team to play/justify the league’s record-smashing 14 NCAA spots.
Worth staying up late
(5) Michigan vs. (12) UC San Diego
10 p.m. ET, TBS
Part of the fun of these first few days of the tournament is sitting glued to the TV after midnight, catching an upset by a team few know over a school everyone knows, then enjoying the bleary-eyed feeling when the morning alarm goes off, knowing you caught a classic.
Meanwhile: Every “12-5” game is self-recommending for its potential to be an upset (or “upset,” because at this point, a No. 12 seed beating a No. 5 seed is considered normal). UC San Diego has every characteristic of the classic 12-seed (this feature on the team is your must-read); Michigan is coming off a Big Ten Tournament championship run.
Moore: Michigan-UC San Diego might be one of the most interesting matchups of the Round of 64. Michigan’s dread all season has been turnovers, and the Tritons rank second in Division I in defensive turnover rate. The only issue for UC San Diego is its small frontcourt. Michigan is huge up front with 7-footers Danny Wolf and Vladislav Goldin.
FRIDAY
The best game
(4) Maryland vs. (13) Grand Canyon
4:35 p.m. ET, TBS
Lindsay Schnell, picking Grand Canyon: This choice is nothing personal against Maryland. It’s because GCU is one of the best and most consistent mid-major programs in the country (this is the Antelopes’ fourth NCAA appearance in the past five years; they upset Saint Mary’s last year).
Blow off work for…
(5) Memphis vs. (12) Colorado St
2 p.m. ET, TBS
Moore: Colorado State, winner of 10 in a row, is one of the hottest teams in the country and has one of the best wings in the country in Nique Clifford. His matchup with PJ Haggerty will be a fun one. The Rams could end up betting favorites, and I like them because Rashaan Mbemba has the strength to match up with Memphis big man Dain Dainja.
Then stick around for…
(7) Saint Mary’s vs. (10) Vanderbilt
3:15 p.m. ET, truTV
Schnell, backing Saint Mary’s: I’ll take Saint Mary’s to beat Vanderbilt in the first round and then upset Alabama in the second round. The Gaels are a tough, talented and, most importantly, veteran squad. They’re led by one of my favorite players: crafty point guard Augustas Marciulionis.
Worth staying up late
(5) Oregon vs. (12) Liberty
10:10 p.m. ET, truTV
Moore: Oregon-Liberty is one of the few spots where I went with an upset. Like Drake, Liberty can control the pace and is one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the country. Oregon prefers to play with pace. It’s not usually a good strategy to bet against Ducks coach Dana Altman in March, but Ritchie McKay is one of the mid-major level’s best coaches, and this is the best team he’s taken to the tournament since 2019, when Liberty upset Mississippi State in the first round.
(Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
Welcome to Literary Quotable Quotes, a quiz that tests your recognition of classic lines. This week’s installment highlights observations from future or alternate worlds depicted in popular science fiction. In the five multiple-choice questions below, tap or click on the answer you think is correct. After the last question, you’ll find links to the books if you’re intrigued and inspired to read more.
Welcome to Lit Trivia, the Book Review’s regular quiz about books, authors and literary culture. This week’s challenge tests your memory of books that made huge impacts on society after they were published — some of them even spurring changes to American laws. In the five multiple-choice questions below, tap or click on the answer you think is correct. After the last question, you’ll find links to the books if you’d like to do further reading.
Where do you turn when you need advice? A chatbot? A life coach? A wise and trusted friend?
How about a poet? Poets may not be famous for making the best life choices, but because they subject the mess of human existence to the discipline of language, they can be as helpful as any therapist or mentor.
Good poets know the rules and when to break them, which is something they can teach the rest of us.
To wit:
Giving advice is a peculiar literary undertaking. It flourishes in certain popular genres — graduation speeches, newspaper columns, country and western songs and poems like this one — but what, in these contexts, is it really for?
I’m thinking of situations when you don’t urgently need help but nonetheless enjoy reading answers to questions you may not have thought to ask. What interests you isn’t the content of the advice — you could get all the life hacks you want from A.I. — so much as the voice of the person dispensing it.
Wendy Cope is an English poet, born in 1945, who has been a fixture of her country’s literary scene since the 1980s. More recently, her short, buoyant poem “The Orange” has been widely memed online, bringing her to the attention of new readers beyond Britain.
Cope favors rhyme, meter, brisk jokes and tart aperçus. She addresses romance, friendship and the petty absurdities of modern life with disarming good humor. The last line of “The Orange” is “I love you. I’m glad I exist.” Somehow she makes it the opposite of cringe.
This isn’t the kind of poetry you would describe as “confessional.” And yet …
Question 1/7
Stop, if the car is going “clunk”
Or if the sun has made you blind.
Don’t answer e–mails when you’re drunk.
Tap a word above to fill in the highlighted blank.Want to learn this poem by heart? We’ll help.
Fill in the missing words below. You can always refer to the reading by A.O. Scott and full
text above.Let’s start with the first stanza.
-
Kansas2 minutes agoMSHP recover missing Kansas person from Table Rock Lake
-
Illinois2 minutes agoCentral Illinois residents face tough compromises as gas prices pinch budgets
-
Indiana7 minutes ago21-year-old Indiana man shot, killed near Ford City Mall, Chicago officials say
-
Iowa14 minutes agoStaffing new Iowa prisons may be “impossible,” union president warns
-
Kentucky29 minutes agoKentucky Lottery Cash Ball, Pick 3 Evening winning numbers for June 14, 2026
-
Louisiana32 minutes ago
Louisiana Lottery Pick 3, Pick 4 results for June 14, 2026
-
Maine37 minutes agoMaine’s Susan Collins-Graham Platner race expected to draw nearly $400M in ads
-
Maryland44 minutes agoMaryland Lottery Pick 3, Pick 4 results for June 14, 2026
