Villanova-Michigan: March Madness start time, how to watch and stream

The Villanova Wildcats return to March Madness action Thursday, taking on No. 11 seed Michigan in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in San Antonio.

The game will be a rematch of the 2018 National Championship, which Villanova won in a blowout. But outside of guard Collin Gillespie, it’s an entirely new crew of young men who will face a Michigan team that upset Tennessee and Colorado State with the return of head coach Juwan Howard, who was suspended for the final five games of the regular season for hitting a Wisconsin assistant in the head.

It’s the fourth time in six years the Wildcats have advanced to the Sweet 16, and Villanova is just one of two No. 2 seeds still alive in the tournament. The other is Duke, which plays No. 3 seed Texas Tech in San Francisco Thursday in Mike Krzyzewski’s final year as head coach.

Calling the Villanova game on TBS will be Brian Anderson and Jim Jackson, with Allie LaForce reporting from the court. It’s Anderson’s 10th NCAA men’s basketball tournament, but after watching Villanova practice Wednesday, he said the Wildcats look more like the NBA teams he’s used to calling on TNT.

“They’re very businesslike,” Anderson told The Inquirer. [Their practice] is very precise, it’s disciplined. There’s not a lot of wasted motion or wasted time, there’s not a lot of rah rah — it’s just get in, get your work, and I think that’s the best way to describe Villanova.”

While Michigan does have a size advantage, Anderson pointed out that’s nothing new for a Wildcats team that won 28 games in the regular season and “can beat you at every level.”

“Villanova is certainly the favorite and certainly a team that nobody would be surprised with if they advance to the Final Four out of this South Region,” Anderson said.

In addition to airing on TBS, you can also stream the game using the NCAA March Madness Live website and app, though a cable subscription is required. TBS is also available on a host of so-called “skinny bundles,” including Hulu With Live TV, DirecTV Stream, Sling TV, or YouTube TV.

If you’re a FuboTV subscriber, you’re out of luck. Despite being a sports-focused cord-cutting option, the streaming service lost TNT and TBS in 2020 and hasn’t yet agreed to a new deal with WarnerMedia.

Here’s everything you need to know to watch or stream the Villanova-Michigan Sweet 16 matchup:

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Inquirer staff writer Mike Jensen and columnist Mike Sielski will be covering all the action live from the AT&T Center. Notes and observations about the game will be at Inquirer.com/villanova.

Studio coverage begins on TBS at 6 p.m. from Turner Studios in Atlanta, featuring Ernie Johnson, Candace Parker, Rex Chapman, and Seth Davis. Studio coverage across both TBS and CBS for Thursday and Friday’s games will also feature Greg Gumbel, Charles Barkley, Clark Kellogg, and Kenny Smith.

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The Sweet 16 kids off Thursday night in the men’s basketball tournament. The women’s tournament resumes on Friday night.

» READ MORE: How to bet on Thursday’s NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 games

The second night of Sweet 16 games will feature two matchups taking place in Philadelphia at the Wells Fargo Center — Saint Peter’s vs. Purdue and North Carolina vs. UCLA.

It’s the first time since 2016 that Philadelphia has hosted NCAA Tournament games. But the city’s ties with the contest date back to 1939, when the Palestra hosted the first game of the very first NCAA tournament (which Villanova participated in).