March Madness is alive and thriving, with the NCAA men’s tournament First Four round tipping off Tuesday, March 18th, and the Round of 64 getting underway Thursday the 20th. The women’s First Four begins Wednesday and the Big Dance launches Friday.

Over the next few weeks, stars will be made, legacies will be cemented, and ultimately, champions will be crowned. But before that crescendo, we need to get through the beautiful chaos that is the tournament’s first weekend. The First Four, the Round of 64 (formerly/still known as the first round), and the Round of 32 (a.k.a. the second round) — an almost overwhelming slate of games after which the Sweet 16 will be left stading.

Here are 10 games — some scheduled for the first round, and some that are potential second-round matchups — that you’ll hopefully get to watch during the first weekend.

Kansas vs. Arkansas (men)

Going into this season, the prospect of a Kansas-Arkansas matchup in the NCAA Tournament would’ve been something earmarked for the Sweet 16, if not the Elite Eight or maybe even the Final Four. Bill Self’s Jayhawks were the No. 1 team in the country in the AP preseason poll, and John Calipari’s Razorbacks generated a lot of hype to go with a top-20 ranking ahead of his first season in Fayetteville following his stunning exit from Kentucky.

This definitely wasn’t supposed to be a first-round showdown between a 7-seed and a 10-seed. And yet here we are, with the two future Hall of Fame coaches and two (on paper) star-studded rosters meeting in Providence, Rhode Island, both teams in a better position to merely salvage a disappointing season than actually contend for a national championship.

Two guys in particular with something to prove here: Kansas senior center Hunter Dickinson (17.6 points per game, 10.0 rebounds) is battling good-player-empty-stats allegations, and Arkansas freshman guard Boogie Fland (15.1 points, 5.7 assists) is drawing the-team-is-actualy-better-without-him talk. The Razorbacks were struggling at 11-7 overall and 0-5 in the SEC when Fland went down with a hand injury in January, and with him on the sideline the team went 9-6 overall and 8-5 in the SEC. Now the five-star recruit is set to return for the tournament, and could have a make-or-break impact on Arkansas’ postseason.

Memphis vs. Colorado State (men)

I’m guessing this will be the most popular upset prediction of the first round: one, because everyone likes to pick at least one 12-over-5-seed upset in their bracket; two, because Colorado State is a 12-seed that has won 10 straight games; and three, because the Rams are led by Nique Clifford, who earned first-team All-Mountain West and All-Defensive honors, and with his run in the conference tournament may have snatched a few All-American votes.

Clifford is averaging 19.0 points, 9.7 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.5 steals per game. The 6-foot-6 senior guard dropped 36 points in CSU’s regular-season finale against Boise State (an NCAA tourney bubble team), and had back-to-back 25-point double-doubles in his first two Mountain West tournament games.

Memphis earned their 5-seed with a 29-5 campaign and an American Athletic Conference tournament title. The Tigers might even be hotter than their first-round opponent, as they’ve won 16 of their last 17 games and eight in a row. But historically, Memphis is a program that tends to have a lot of talent but also tends to fall short of its potential. In his seventh year as head coach at his alma mater, Penny Hardaway hasn’t gone past the second round of the NCAA Tournament, and has missed the Big Dance three times.

This year’s Tigers do, however, have PJ Haggerty. The 6-foot-3 sophomore guard can go shot-for-shot with Colorado State’s Clifford; Haggerty is averaging 21.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.8 steals. He scored 42 in a conference tournament game against Wichita State, and leads a Memphis team that has regular-season wins over Michigan State, UConn, Missouri, Ole Miss, and Clemson.

LSU vs. Florida State (women)

If you haven’t watched them play, you’ve at least heard the chatter and seen the commercials featuring JuJu Watkins and Paige Bueckers, the two biggest stars in women’s college basketball. But do you know who is the leading scorer in not only women’s college ball, but is also scoring more than any male player in the country?

It’s Florida State junior guard Ta’Niya Latson, who’s averaging 24.9 points per game and led the Seminoles to a 6-seed in the NCAA Tournament. Latson is in something of a slump, as she scored only 22 points total in her last two games, losses to Duke and North Carolina. When she’s on, however, no one can stop her. The 5-foot-8 playmaker has seven games of 30-plus points this season, including a 40-point effort against Virginia Tech, 39 against SMU, and 38 against Tennessee. Latson also has four double-digit assist games and averages 4.7 assists per game.

If FSU gets past first-round opponent George Mason, they’ll mostly likely face 3-seed LSU — a team led by the No. 1 rebounder in the country (for women and men), Aneesah Morrow. A different kind of statistical monster, Morrow averages 13.6 boards to go with 18.5 points, and she’s one of only two women in NCAA history to tally 100 double-doubles in a career. The 6-foot-1 senior forward posted 36 points and 14 rebounds in an SEC tournament win over Florida, and had two 20-and-20 games this season.

Florida vs. UConn (men)

UConn came into this season with history on it agenda. The Huskies were aiming to become the first NCAA men’s team to win three straight national championships since the dominant UCLA teams of the 1960s and ’70s. The Huskies lost a lot of talent from their 2023 and 2024 title teams to the NBA, but nobody really wanted to doubt or bet against coach Dan Hurley.

It hasn’t really gone according to plan for the Huskies. They’re 23-10 and entering the NCAA Tournament as an 8-seed, and a lot of fans and media wrote them off as legit title contenders when they lost three straight games at the Maui Invitational back in November. But they’re in the Big Dance field, so there’s always a chance. There’s no standout superstar on this UConn squad, but they’re getting a balanced output from leading scorers Solo Ball (14.6 points), Liam McNeeley (14.5) and Alex Karaban (14.4), with two-time national champion and fifth-year point guard Hassan Diarra (who’s Muslim) as a steadying force.

If UConn gets past Oklahoma in the first round, they will almost certainly face 1-seed Florida in the second round. In a storybook scenario that the NCAA Tournament selection committee had to recognize, Florida was the last team before UConn to repeat as national champs — and now they could very well be the team to officially end UConn’s bid at a three-peat.

Arizona vs. Oregon (men)

This is shaping up to be a Pac-12 family reunion. If 4-seed Arizona and 5-seed Oregon win their first-round games — against Akron and Liberty, respectively — they will meet each other in the second round, and it will take place in Seattle. That’s one former Pac-12 team that’s now in the Big 12 versus another former Pac-12 team that’s now in the Big Ten, playing each other in the city that’s home to another former Pac-12 team, the University of Washington.

And then the winner of Arizona-Oregon could have a chance to upset 1-seed Duke, a national title favorite whose history of tournament heartache includes a famous loss to another now-former Pac-12 team, California, who ended Duke’s three-peat bid back in 1993.

Michigan State vs. Marquette (men)

I went to a fight and a basketball game broke out. The school that produced Draymond Green and Zach Randolph could find itself in a second-round rumble against the school that produced Jae Crowder and Jimmy Butler (and Maurice Lucas, for the old-school fans).

If the 2-seed Spartans get past Bryant, and the 7-seed Golden Eagles get past New Mexico, this one could be an entertaining scrap with a lot of hard-fought possessions. Tom Izzo and Shaka Smart have both coached teams to the Final Four (Izzo also has a national championship), and both of their teams have spent time this season ranked in the top 10 nationally. Michigan State closed stronger, winning eight of its last nine games before the Big Dance, while Marquette has lost three of its last four.

TCU vs. Louisville (women)

No way this potential second-round meeting was a coincidence by the selection committee. TCU senior guard Hailey Van Lith (17.9 points, 5.3 assists) has been playing at an All-American level and in her first year with the Horned Frogs after transferring, she’s helped resurrect a program that was 1-17 in the Big 12 two years ago and 6-12 in the conference last season. This season, TCU went 16-2 in the Big 12 (31-3 overall) and won the conference tournament, and enters the Big Dance winners of 10 straight games.

If the 2-seed Horned Frogs defeat Farleigh Dickinson, their second-round opponent could be 7-seed Louisville — the school where Van Lith began her college career and played three seasons. Van Lith helped the Cardinals to one Final Four and three Elite Eight appearances before she transferred to LSU, where she made another Elite Eight, and then transferred again to TCU.

Auburn vs. Louisville (men)

The Louisville men were slotted one seed worse than the Louisville women, which means the 8-seed Cardinals will most likely have to face a 1-seed if they win their first-round game against Creighton. And that 1-seed would be the men’s tournament’s overall 1-seed, Auburn.

However, the Cardinals have a noteworthy advantage should that matchup come to fruition. Their opening section of the South regional will be held in Lexington, Kentucky — which is the home of Louisville’s bitter cross-state rivals at the University of Kentucky, but is also just about an hour and 15-minute drive from Louisville. Which means a second-round game between the Tigers and Cardinals could be something resembling a home game for UL if their fans make the short trip en masse to Lexington.

Also, Louisville is a really good 8-seed. They’re actually ranked 10th overall in the most recent AP Top 25, sporting a 27-7 record. A traditionally strong program that suffered a terrible two-year stint under previous coach Kenny Payne, the Cards are back in the mix with first-year coach Pat Kelsey, who’s in the running for national Coach of the Year honors.

Alabama vs. Saint Mary’s or Vanderbilt

Alabama is one of those high-seeded teams that feels vulnerable for an upset in March. The 2-seed Crimson Tide went 13-5 in an historically loaded SEC — which put 14 teams in this NCAA Tournament — and has the No. 1 offense in the country, scoring 91.1 points per game. They’re led by senior guard Mark Sears (18.7 points, 4.9 assists), who entered this season as a national Player of the Year candidate, and are coming off a Final Four appearance last season. But ‘Bama relies a lot on 3-pointers, and teams like that can always shoot themselves out of a game on a cold night. The Tide have also lost three of their last five games.

But assuming Alabama gets past 15-seed Robert Morris in the first round, they’ll have to face either 7-seed Saint Mary’s or 10-seed Vanderbilt in the second round. The Gaels and the Commodores are good teams: Saint Mary’s won the West Coast Conference regular-season title over perma-favorite Gonzaga, while Vandy began the season 13-1 and has wins over Tennessee, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, and Missouri.

On top of that, Saint Mary’s and Vanderbilt are classic fan-favorite March Madness underdogs who will have most of the arena supporting them in a game against big-brand Alabama — which is honestly an innocent villain whose bad-guy status is carried over from the school’s football team. Either way, ‘Bama will have to overcome a quality opponent and a biased crowd to make it to the Sweet 16.

Notre Dame vs. Iowa State (women)

It could take a lot to get here. Iowa State, which got into the field as an 11-seed, must win a First Four game on Wednesday against Princeton for the right to face 6-seed Michigan in the Round of 64, and if the Cyclones pull off that upset, then they’ll potentially see 3-seed Notre Dame in the Round of 32. The Irish have to get past 14-seed Stephen F. Austin.

If everything falls into place and we get Notre Dame vs. Iowa State, what we’ll get is a style clash between the best backcourt in women’s college basketball, and the most powerful frontcourt force in women’s college basketball.

Notre Dame is led by its trio of guards: sophomore Hannah Hidalgo (24.2 points, 3.7 assists, 3.7 steals), senior Olivia Miles (16.2 points, 5.8 assists), and senior Sonia Citron (13.8 points, 5.3 rebounds). Iowa State is led by sophomore center Audi Crooks (23.2 points, 7.6 rebounds), a 6-foot-3 dominator who put up 32 points in her last game, a Big 12 tournament loss to Baylor, and in last year’s NCAA Tournament as a freshman scored 40 in a first-round win over Maryland.

There is a blueprint to slowing Crooks down — following that 40-point effort last year, she shot just 3-for-21 in a loss to Stanford — but does guard-heavy Notre Dame have the size and strength up front to put that plan into action?