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.

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March Madness begins: Full schedule of Thursday’s NCAA games

Updated: 12:06 PM CDT 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.

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(9) TCU vs. (8) Ohio State – 12:15 p.m.

(13) Troy vs. (4) Nebraska – 12:40 p.m.

(11) South Florida vs. (6) Louisville – 1:30 p.m.

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(12) High Point vs. (5) Wisconsin – 1:50 p.m.

(16) Siena vs.(1) Duke – 2:50 p.m.

(12) McNeese vs.(5) Vanderbilt – 3:15 p.m.

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(14) North Dakota State vs.(3) Michigan State – 4:05 p.m.

(13) Hawaii vs. (4) Arkansas – 4:25 p.m.

(11) VCU vs. (6) North Carolina – 6:50 p.m.

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(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.

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(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.

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(15) Idaho vs. (2) Houston – 10:10 p.m.