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Arkansas and Gonzaga will play the first game of the Sweet 16, it was announced Sunday.
With a trip to the Elite Eight on the line, the two teams are scheduled to tip at 6:09 p.m. CT Thursday at the Chase Center in San Francisco. The game will be televised on CBS, with Jim Nantz, Bill Raftery, Grant Hill and Tracy Wolfson on the call.
It is the second straight year the Razorbacks have advanced to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament after snapping 25-year drought last season, when they beat Oral Roberts before falling to eventual national champion Baylor in the Elite Eight.
They got back to the Sweet 16 in 2022 with close wins over 13-seed Vermont and 12-seed New Mexico State. Arkansas is the lone SEC team still alive in the tournament.
Gonzaga is in its seventh straight Sweet 16 after pulling away from 16-seed Georgia State in the first round and surviving a scare from 9-seed Memphis in the Round of 32. It is the No. 1 overall seed with a 28-3 record.
The other Sweet 16 matchup in the West Region features 2-seed Duke and 3-seed Texas Tech, which will tip following the conclusion of the Arkansas-Gonzaga game.
