March Madness begins: Full schedule of Thursday’s NCAA games
Uh, we’re at Jody’s Club Forest in Staten Island, New York. I mean, I think when people talk about starting it, we didn’t, it wasn’t the brackets we started, we just started ***, *** winner from each region and you know, the champion and total points. From what I was told *** million times, you know, from my father, you know, before he passed was. That you know they were just hanging one day and he was *** creative guy and you know he would like to come up with some things to add business in *** way so that was his whole beginning of it and the first year they did it it was 1977 and there were 88 people to get in it and it was at $10 *** ticket. So the total prize was $880 in 1977. The word of mouth just really took it to *** level where we never in *** million years would have ever imagined where it got. Our last year was 2006. We had 1.6 $160,000. That final prize was $1.6 million. The day, the cutoff day for submitting tickets was as big as any other holiday around here. And Saint Patty’s Day is *** big day around here, but I mean it was, everybody came out, wives, you know, families came out. It was *** good time. Did you know? I used to have *** table lined up along the back and you’d have people collecting money collecting money and there were multiple different people, you know, we had elected officials getting in it we had, you know, we had which we knew everyone knew everyone was getting in it like, you know, Mike and the Mad Dog were getting in like people were like, that’s how popular it was like we were getting calls from California, uh, when the war was going on in Iraq. They were, there were tickets being sent to Iraq. In December of ’06, we were, uh, it was like *** Tuesday morning I believe, and two agents came in. They questioned my dad about running the pool and this and that and they said you’re under investigation. Um, fast forward, um, I would say about right then and there the pool was over. There wasn’t even *** debate amongst. My parents like, oh we’re gonna run it, we’re not gonna run it. We were, it was over right there, right that day in December. Now you could look up on the TV and I can watch *** game and my son could say, what’s Vandule and what’s this and that, like, to me, it’s just like. That’s crazy because gambling is just so accepted now. I’ve been asked like if we would ever start it up again. I just don’t even know if I could, could legally do it. I don’t, you know, but if I did it, it would, I think it would skyrocket right away. Yeah.
March Madness begins: Full schedule of Thursday’s NCAA games
Updated: 9:10 PM MDT Mar 19, 2026
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Let the Madness begin!
The 2026 Men’s NCAA Tournament’s first round kicked off Thursday with 64 teams vying to be the best in college basketball.
Here’s a look at Thursday’s games. All times Eastern.
(9) TCU 66, (8) Ohio State 64
Xavier Edmonds converted a layup to beat the shot clock with 4.3 seconds left, and No. 9 seed TCU held off a furious second-half rally by eighth-seeded Ohio State for a 66-64 victory to open the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Bruce Thornton’s half-court heave at the buzzer hit all backboard for the Buckeyes. Micah Robinson scored 18 points for TCU, Edmonds finished with 16 and David Punch had 16 points and 13 rebounds. John Mobley Jr. scored 15 points to lead Ohio State.
(4) Nebraska 76, (13) Troy 47
Pryce Sandfort scored 23 points and Nebraska rolled to its long-awaited first NCAA Tournament victory, beating Troy 76-47. The Cornhuskers entered March Madness as the only school from a power conference without a tournament win.
They were 0-8, with many of the losses coming as the higher seed. Sandfort helped the Huskers end the drought by making seven 3-pointers.
Braden Frager and Jamarques Lawrence each scored 13 points and Rienk Mast added 11 points, seven assists and six rebounds for the Huskers.
Victor Valdes scored 14 points for Troy.
(6) Louisville 83, (11) South Florida 79
Isaac McKneely scored 23 points, and Louisville hung on to beat South Florida 83-79 to win its first NCAA Tournament game since Rick Pitino’s last season as coach in 2017.
Ryan Conwell scored 11 of his 18 points in the second half and backup forward Sananda Fru had 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Joseph Pinion scored 27 points for South Florida (25-9) in a game in which the Bulls missed 20 of their first 21 3-point attempts.
(12) High Point 83, (5) Wisconsin 82
hase Johnston made his first 2-point basket of the season, a fast-break layup with 11.7 seconds remaining that gave No. 12 seed High Point an 83-82 victory over fifth-seeded Wisconsin on Thursday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Johnston finished with 14 points, including four 3-pointers for the Panthers, who were 10 1/2-point underdogs, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. He came in shooting 64 of 136 (47.1%) from 3-point range but 0 of 4 inside the arc, and he had played more minutes (406) and scored more points (196) without making a 2-point shot than any player in the country.
Nick Boyd finished with 27 points and John Blackwell added 22 points and 10 rebounds for the Badgers, who have lost to a lower-seeded team in each of their last four NCAA Tournament appearances. They fell to No. 11 seed Iowa State in 2022 and No. 12 seed James Madison in 2024 and lost in the second round last year as a 3 seed to sixth-seeded BYU.
(1) Duke 71, (16) Siena 65
Duke barely avoided a shocking upset to open the NCAA Tournament before beating Siena 71-65.
The No. 1 overall seed had to rally from 13 down and go ahead for good in the final 5 minutes to beat the 16th-seeded Saints.
Cameron Boozer had 22 points and 13 rebounds for the Blue Devils. Gavin Doty scored 21 points for Siena.
The Saints led by 11 at half and 61-56 with 7:56 left before Duke had an 11-0 run to go ahead for good.
(5) Vanderbilt 78, (12) McNesse St. 68
Tyler Tanner had 26 points, seven rebounds and five assists, and Vanderbilt rallied to beat McNeese 78-68 on Thursday for its first victory in the NCAA Tournament since 2012.
Duke Miles scored 13 points and Devin McGlockton and Tyler Nickel each added 12 for Vanderbilt, which trailed by 12 points in the first half and then took control after the break.
Garwey Dual scored 16 points and Larry Johnson added 15 for No. 12 seed McNeese, which was trying to knock off a No. 5 seed for the second straight year.
(13) Hawaii vs. (4) Arkansas – 4:25 p.m.
(11) VCU vs. (6) North Carolina – 6:50 p.m.
(16) Howard vs. (1) Michigan – 7:10 p.m.
(11) Texas vs. (6) BYU – 7:25 p.m.
(10) Texas A&M vs. (7) Saint Mary’s (CA) – 7:35 p.m.
(14) Penn vs. (3) Illinois – 9:25 p.m.
(9) Saint Louis vs. (8) Georgia – 9:45 p.m.
(14) Kennesaw State vs. (3) Gonzaga – 10 p.m.
(15) Idaho vs. (2) Houston – 10:10 p.m.
