12:08 a.m.: Twelve hours later, it's time to put a bow on Day 5 of the NCAA tournament.
New England hoops fans had to wait all day to see UConn, but it was worth the wait.
The Huskies, behind another stellar performance from Kemba Walker, were able to come away with a win over Cincinnati.
We have the first half of the Sweet 16, and here they are: Kentucky, Florida, BYU, Wisconsin, Butler, San Diego State and UConn.
Tomorrow, the rest of the Sweet 16 is decided.
11:45 p.m.: Pullen takes it coast-to-coast as K-State trails by one, but he loses control of the ball, down by a point.
Moments later he had a chance to tie the game with three free throws. He missed one of them, forcing the Wildcats to foul.
Then a few moments after that, Pullen had his 3-pointer to tie block.
Wisconsin escapes with the win.
11:11 p.m.: We've got yet another thrilling finish on tap, this one coming in the Kansas State-Wisconsin game.
Kemba Walker and Jimmer Fredette were getting most of the ink heading into Saturday, and for good reason, but Jacob Pullen is stealing the show late.
He's got 36 points on his way to becoming the all-time leading scorer in K-State history.
10:20 p.m.: UConn and Cincinnati are halfway through the first half in their game, with the Bearcats in possession of an early three-point lead.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin and Kansas State are locked up in a good one early in the second half in Tuscon.
9:34 p.m.: We turn our attention to Denver now, where the BYU Fighting Jimmers are pulling away in the second half from Gonzaga.
With Fredette, the Cougars have a chance agianst anyone. Now, with Pitt losing, BYU's chances of reaching the Final Four are that much better.
Just imagine if they had Brandon Davies…
9:24 p.m.: Just an unbelievably zany finish to Pitt-Butler.
First, Butler takes the lead. Then, Pitt inbounds it, and Butler's Shelvin Mack of all people commits a silly foul, giving Pitt two free throws. After hitting the first, Gilbert Brown misses his second free throw. Making matters worse, Nasir Robinson fouls Matt Howard on the rebound.
Howard hits the first free throw before missing the second one.
Then, just for fun, Pitt narrowly misses a 60-foot desperation heave at the buzzer.
Wow.
9:15 p.m.: Butler had a chance to take the lead, grabbing a couple of offensive rebounds, but couldn't capitalize.
They will, however, have one more chance to win the game, as they'll inbound the ball with 7.1 seconds to play upon the conclusion of this timeout.
Win or lose, though, it's clear that Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon has the best hair in college basketball. So there's that.
9:11 p.m.: With exactly one minute to play, and down by one, Butler takes timeout.
8:55 p.m.: With five minutes to play, Butler has regained the lead.
Bonkers.
8:50 p.m.: Butler is making life difficult for Pitt still, but the Panthers do have the lead for the time being.
Meanwhile, Jimmer Fredette has 14 points at recess against Gonzaga — just another day at the office for the future first-rounder.
Check that whole, "Pitt has the lead thing." A Butler 3-pointer makes it tied with six and a half minutes to play.
8:30 p.m.: "Nobody said this game wasy easy." Good point, Steve Fisher.
San Diego State survives.
8:19 p.m.: Five minutes later, and still no winner in Tuscon, as Temple and San Diego State go to overtime.
The Aztecs had another chance to win at the horn, but again, they could not convert.
By the way, what's more surprising? The fact that this game is going to a second overtime, or the fact that only 122 points have been scored between the two teams.
8:07 p.m.: In what seemed like the longest 4 seconds ever, a San Diego State buzzer-beater attempt goes awry.
Overtime for them against Temple.
8:01 p.m.: A 9-2 run for Temple ties the game at 54. San Diego State needs a timeout, so what does Steve Fisher do? He calls a timeout.
Down to the wire for the No. 2 Aztecs.
8:00 p.m.: After commenting on Pitt's struggles, they dramatically cut the lead. And then, they see it go back to eight at the half. I'd say we're one or two TV timeouts in the second half away from upset alert for the No. 1-seeded Panthers.
The Jimmer show just got started, as BYU takes on Gonzaga in a mid-major party.
Finally, we're moving over to San Diego State-Temple, as they're down to the final minute, with the Aztecs clinging to a two-point lead.
7:45 p.m.: The heat was on Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon coming into the tournament. Dixon, a regular-season wizard, has yet to win when it matters most for the Panthers, and right now, his Pitt team is in a rockfight with Butler.
The defending national runner-ups have jumped out to what is now a nine-point lead.
7:30 p.m.: The Owls are pesky.
Temple will simply not go away, and after the first TV timeout of the second half, the Owls have cut the San Diego State lead to four.
Also, Richmond just wrapped up its game with Morehead State, meaning the Spiders will join Florida and Kentucky in the Sweet 16.
Butler and Pitt are also now underway. Business is starting to pick up.
7:05 p.m.: Is it too late to take back the good things said about San Diego State.
They didn't have a meltdown or anything like that, but you would have liked to see them close out the first half a little better than they did.
Steve Fisher's bunch let Temple back into the game, and as a result, the Owls only trail by five at the half.
Elsewhere, Morehead State will not go away, but they trail Richmond by 10 with under eight minutes to go in Denver.
6:45 p.m.: San Diego State is really a fun team to watch. They've increased their lead over Temple to seven, highlighted by an exciting fast-break dunk by Billy White after a textbook spin move at full speed on the break.
The Aztecs certainly have some imposing figures, which really shouldn't come as a surprise when you talk about Steve Fisher teams.
6:15 p.m.: Richmond heads to halftime with a solid 30-21 lead over Morehead State.
As they head to the locker rooms in Denver, Temple and San Diego State have just tipped out in Tuscon.
The Aztecs lead early, and somewhere, a smiling Ron Burgundy approves.
5:20 p.m.: We heard a lot all year about how good the Big East was, but it's the SEC stealing the spotlight for today at least. Florida joined Kentucky in the Sweet 16, as they pulled away late to defeat UCLA.
After a relatively light slate early on, we've got six games tipping off in the next four hours.
First up, is your typical 12-13 matchup, with Morehead State taking on Richmond.
You have to think that new CBS analyst Rick Pitino will be able to provide a pretty thorough scouting report on Morehead State after they bounced Pitino's Louisville squad on Thursday.
4:45: It looks like we'll be going down to the wire in Tampa for the second game of the day.
UCLA and Florida remained locked in a close one, not much of a surprise when you consider both teams are such NCAA powerhouses.
They just said on the CBS broadcast that the Gators didn't have one player foul out all year. One, that's pretty impressive, I think. Two, that streak is in jeopardy at the worst time as Vernon Macklin and Patric Young have four fouls.
Florida leads by two.
3:55: UCLA and Florida are wrapped in a tight one, as the Gators lead 35-33 at the half.
2:30: After a back-and-forth game, John Calipari's youngsters have outmuscled WVU with some clutch play from Brandon Knight and Terrence Jones. 71-63.
1:50: Kentucky has stormed back to take a 46-45 2nd half lead with under 12 to go, but it's far from over.
1:10 p.m.: West Virginia used a late run to pull ahead of Kentucky 41-33 to end the first half. The flow of play, though, was pretty much even throughout.
12:20 p.m.: And we're off. Kentucky and WVU have tipped to start round three, with Brandon Knight scoring the first points with a couple of sweet threes.
10 a.m.: While the first round of the Big Dance may have the highest volume of games and the craziest upsets, the consensus view among fans of the Madness is that the second round features the best combination of upset potential, volume and significance.
The better part of that action will go down in the Southeast on Saturday, with Butler looking to pull a Butler against perennial tournament underachievers Pitt.
Below is the full schedule of the day's proceedings.
East
No. 4 Kentucky (-3.5) vs. No. 5 West Virginia
St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa Florida. 12:15 pm.
West
No. 3 Connecticut (-3) vs. No. 6 Cincinnati
Verizon Center, Washington D.C., 9:40 pm.
No. 2 San Diego State (-6) vs. No. 7 Temple
McKale Center, Tuscon, Arizona, 6:40 pm.
Southwest
No. 13 Morehead State (-3.5) vs. No. 12 Richmond
Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado, 5:15 pm.
Southeast
No. 1 Pittsburgh (-8) vs. No. 8 Butler
Verizon Center, Washington D.C., 7:10 pm.
No. 4 Wisconsin (-2.5) vs. No. 5 Kansas State
Mckale Center, Tuscon, Arizona, 8:40 pm.
No. 11 Gonzaga (-2) vs. No. 3 BYU
Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado, 7:45 pm.
No. 2 Florida (-5) vs. No. 7 UCLA
St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa, Florida, 2:45 pm.
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