University of Utah Athletics

SALT LAKE CITY – The University of Utah is hosting NCAA Men's Basketball first- and second-round games on Thursday and Saturday at Vivint Smart Home Arena.

Salt Lake City is one of four sites hosting a No. 1 seed as Gonzaga, the top team in the West Region, opens NCAA Tournament play at Vivint for the third time since 2013. The Bulldogs, regular-season champions of the West Coast Conference, take on the winner of a First Four matchup between Fairleigh Dickinson and Prairie View A&M, which takes place Tuesday night in Dayton, Ohio. The second West Region bracket game in Salt Lake City features Syracuse of the ACC and Baylor from the Big 12 Conference.

Four teams from the Midwest Region are coming to Salt Lake City. Fourth-seeded Kansas, the Big 12 Tournament runner-up, takes on Northeastern, which won the CAA Tournament. Fifth-seeded Auburn, winner of the SEC Tournament, faces WAC regular-season and tournament champion New Mexico State.

Four first-round games will take place on Thursday, two in the afternoon session and two in the evening session. The winners will meet in a pair of second-round games on Saturday at times to be determined.

Fans are welcome to attend open practices by all eight teams on Wednesday from 11 a.m.-6:20 p.m. at Vivint Smart Home Arena. No charge for admission.

A limited number of tickets for the games are available through ticketmaster.com (https://www.ticketmaster.com/ncaa-mens-basketball-tournament-tickets/artist/1239566).

2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship - Salt Lake City (Vivint Smart Home Arena)
All Times MDT
 
First Round - Thursday (March 21)
Midwest Region
5-Auburn (25-9) vs. 12-New Mexico State (30-4) - 11:30 a.m. MDT (TNT)
4-Kansas (25-9) vs. 13-Northeastern (23-10) - Approx. 2:00 p.m. MDT (TNT)
 
West Region
1-Gonzaga (30-3) vs. 16-Fairleigh Dickinson/Prairie View A&M - 5:27 p.m. MDT (truTV)
8-Syracuse (20-13) vs. 9-Baylor (19-13) - Approx. 7:57 p.m. MDT (truTV)
 
Second Round - Saturday (March 23)
Midwest Region
Kansas/Northeastern vs. Auburn/New Mexico State - TBD
 
West Region
Gonzaga/Fairleigh Dickinson/Prairie View A&M vs. Syracuse/Baylor - TBD

All of the tournament games will be televised nationally on CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV.

For complete tournament information, including helpful fan links, go to www.uteathletics.com/ncaa.

The University of Utah is no stranger to hosting NCAA Championship events. This is the fourth time overall and the second time in the last three years the U. is hosting NCAA Tournament games at Vivint. Utah hosted men's NCAA basketball first- and second-round games on 13 occasions at the Huntsman Center. Utah has also hosted NCAA regional rounds three times—most recently in March of 2010 at Vivint Smart Home Arena—and the 1979 NCAA Final Four featuring Michigan State's Magic Johnson and Indiana State's Larry Bird in the Huntsman Center.