March Madness: These teams will be in Indianapolis for NCAA tournament first, second rounds
Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis will host first- and second-round 2024 NCAA tournament games, highlighted by No. 1 Midwest Region seed Purdue. The Boilermakers — who famously have had trouble in the early rounds in recent seasons — will meet the winner of a play-in game.
Here's who are playing on Friday, March 22, 2024. The winners of these games play Sunday, March 24. Here's ticket information.
Midwest Region
No. 1 Purdue vs. No. 16 Grambling State, 7:25 p.m. ET, TBS
Grambling State (21-14) swept the Southwestern Athletic regular-season and tournament titles. They beat Montana State 88-81 in overtime on Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio.
Rough starts: March Madness hasn't been kind to Purdue in recent seasons
No. 8 Utah State vs. No. 9 TCU, approx. 9:55 p.m. ET, TBS
The Aggies (27-6) come from the tough Mountain West (six NCAA Tournament bids), while TCU (20-12) is from the tough Big 12 (eight bids).
South Region
No. 7 Florida vs. No. 10 Colorado, approx. 4:30 p.m. ET, TBS
Walter Clayton Jr. leads four Gators (24-11) in double figures (18.3 points per game). Colorado (25-10) beat Boise State 60-53 Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio.
No. 2 Marquette vs. No. 15 Western Kentucky, 2 p.m. ET, TBS
Marquette (25-9) is the Big East tournament runner-up, but has played recently without injured point guard Tyler Kolek. Western Kentucky (22-11) features a couple of notable transfers: Brandon Newman from Purdue, and Khristian Lander from Indiana.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: March Madness: What teams are in Indianapolis for 2024 NCAA tournament?