Villanova-Houston: Start time, channel, how to watch and stream March Madness game

Villanova hopes to continue its run toward a seventh Final Four appearance with a win against No. 5 seed Houston Saturday in the Elite Eight round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in San Antonio.

The Wildcats will face a Houston team that has won all three of its tournament games by double digits, including a 72-60 drubbing of No. 1 seed Arizona on Thursday night. The Cougars are trying to make it back to the Final Four for the second consecutive year, something the school hasn’t done since 1983 and 1984 (they went on to lose both national championships to North Carolina State and Georgetown, respectively).

Meanwhile, Villanova is undefeated in this last three Elite Eight appearances under head coach Jay Wright. Stepping up Thursday night in their win against Michigan was fifth-year forward Jermaine Samuels, who led all scorers with 22 points, seven rebounds, two steals, and two blocked shots.

“I was proud of his toughness,” Wright told reporters following the game, “but we have more work to do.”

With a win, Villanova would move to the Final Four for the third time in seven years, where they went on to win the national championship in 2016 and 2018. This year’s Final Four and national championship game will take place Saturday, April 2, at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, and air on TBS.

Here’s everything you need to know to watch or stream tonight’s Elite Eight matchup between Villanova and Houston:

The Elite 8 matchup between Villanova and Houston is scheduled to begin at 6:09 p.m. Eastern, and will air live on TBS from the AT&T Center in San Antonio, home of the San Antonio Spurs.

Calling the game will be the same crew fans heard during Thursday night’s win over Michigan — play-by-play announcer Brian Anderson, analyst Jim Jackson, and sideline reporter Allie LaForce.

The game will stream live on TBS’s website, though it’s only available there for cable subscribers. You can also stream the game using the NCAA March Madness Live website and app, though a cable subscription is also required (if you’ve already blown through the app’s three free hours).

TBS is also available on a host of so-called skinny bundles, including Hulu With Live TV, DirecTV Stream, Sling TV, or YouTube TV. But 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.

» READ MORE: March Madness 2022: NCAA men’s basketball tournament TV schedule, game times and announcers

Pregame coverage of the Villanova-Houston matchup will begin at 5 p.m. on TBS, and will feature one analyst that has a lot of familiarity with the Main Line university — Charles Barkley.

The NBA Hall of Famer has a long relationship with Villanova’s head coach, which dates back to Barkley’s early days as a player for the Sixers. At the time, Wright was an assistant coach at Drexel and later Villanova, and the two have been friends ever since. Barkley’s wife, Maureen, also attended Council Rock High School North with Wright.

“We used to hang out together in our single days,” Wright said during a 2017 interview on ESPN promoting his book, Attitude, for which Barkley contributed the forward. “We can’t tell those stories. None of that is in the book.”

Barkley’s daughter, Christiana (yes, named after the mall in Delaware), is also a Villanova graduate.

Joining Barkley on set during the pregame show will be host Greg Gumbel, CBS college basketball analyst Clark Kellogg, and Inside the NBA cohost Kenny Smith.

» READ MORE: Villanova’s Jermaine Samuels passed a stern test against Michigan with flying colors