Welcome to Friday. March Madness is here for the Boilermakers. How’s your bracket after Thursday? High Point. VCU. Texas coming from Dayton and beating BYU.

Duke nearly joined the No. 1 vs. No. 16 list but escaped. Michigan was in a tussle with Howard, leading by only four at halftime. The nation’s No. 1 defense allowed 46 points in the first half and has given up 80 in back-to-back games.

Big Ten winners: Nebraska (first NCAA victory for the program), Illinois, Michigan State, Michigan

Big Ten losers: Wisconsin, Ohio State.

Big Ten in action Friday: Purdue, Iowa, UCLA.

ARCH MADNESS

Interesting the potential path for Purdue in this year’s NCAA Tournament. In 2001, the women’s team played in the Final Four in St. Louis at what was then called the Savvis Center. The Boilermakers lost to Notre Dame in the title game. The Savvis Center is now the Enterprise Center, which is hosting first and second-round action. The place has changed over the past 25 years, but that’s expected. If Purdue can win two in the shadow of the Arch, it heads to San Jose, where the women’s team won the 1999 national championship. The only common themes are it’s Purdue, and it’s basketball. It proves I’ve been around a long time and I can still remember trivial stuff like this.

The Boilermakers and Queen University in first round action (7:35 p.m., TruTV). Purdue put itself on track by winning the Big Ten tournament in Chicago and is now among the trendy picks to make the Final Four. One week ago, the Boilermakers were the trendy pick to get knocked out in the first round or fail to make the second weekend. Purdue is certainly the flavor of the week.

Let’s take a trip around Thursday’s press conferences:

—Braden Smith returns to wearing No. 3. He ripped his jersey in the title game, frustrated over missing shots, and had to wear the extra jersey, a replacement when blood appears. However, Smith hit 6 of 9 shots wearing No. 41 as the Boilermakers stormed past Michigan.

Smith said he’ll wear his original jersey he ripped. It’s patched up.

“I’m assuming that's the one I will be wearing. That's what I think,” he said. “I think it is all sewed back up. It got sewed up at halftime of that game. I could have worn it in that second half. But (No.) 41 made shots, so we kind of just stuck with it.”

—Fletcher Loyer shared a story about the “Big 3” - himself, Smith, and Trey Kaufman-Renn about what happened at the end of the last season. Most believed the trio was coming back, but they needed to have a discussion.

“We talked to each other over the phone, and it is like we know we can go make millions and millions of dollars somewhere else, but that's not really what we are too worried about. We want to go win a National Championship and do something special,” Loyer said

“Knowing the group we were having when we were coming back and knowing the staff that recruited us at Purdue and trusted us and put the ball in our hands since Day 1, they believed in us to go do it again. Not looking at other factors other than coming back and playing for Purdue.”

—Painter was asked to reminisce about his time in the Missouri Valley Conference at Southern Illinois and playing in St. Louis.

He called it “some of the best times of my life” working and coaching at SIU, serving as an assistant for Bruce Weber. Painter heavily recruited the St. Louis area.

“It was two hours away, it allowed us to get in here. If (Saint Louis) or Missouri or Illinois didn't want them, we had a really good crack to get those guys,” Painter said.

“St. Louis is a great basketball town. It has been really good to the Missouri Valley in that league, and Southern Illinois has had a lot of success in that league,” he said.

SIU went to the NCAA Tournament six straight years, but Painter said five of them were at-large bids, an impressive run for a mid-major program.

“For us, when people hear that story and say, ‘Man, you went six straight years,’ ” he said. “Obviously, I wasn't there the last years to go six straight years, five to be at-large bids, that was pretty special, kind of a special time to be a part of half of that.”

—Queens and coach Grant Leonard have a spirit animal that it takes to games, practices and basically everywhere. It’s a dog, a ceramic mascot and “Buddy the Street Dog” attended both the players and Leonard’s press conferences.

During games, Buddy sits on top of the water cooler to keep him “hydrated,” Leonard said, smiling.

This is Buddy II after Buddy I was “injured” in a celebration in Fort Myers after the Royals beat Florida Gulf Coast in January. Buddy II came from Amazon.

The idea was hatched during the summer when his players called themselves a bunch of dogs.

“One of the assistant coaches, (Adam) Short – and we call him “Bulldog” – he asked them, ‘Are you a street dog or a Petco dog?’ Leonard said. “His comment, ‘Are you guys spoiled or do you have to fight for what you want?’ We want them to embody the street dog mentality of fighting for everything you can get.”

The coaching staff awards a “Street Dog of the Game” to one of the players.

BIG TEN WBB IN POSTSEASON

The league has 12 teams in the NCAA tournament.

FRIDAY

Oregon vs. Virginia Tech, 1:30 p.m. (ESPN2)

Nebraska vs. Baylor, 2 p.m. (ESPN) … The Huskers beat Richmond in Wednesday’s play-in game.

Washington vs. South Dakota State, 2:30 p.m. (ESPNews).

Maryland vs. Murray State, 3 p.m. (ESPNU)

Holy Cross at Michigan, 5:30 p.m. (ESPN2)

Minnesota vs. Wisconsin Green Bay, 6 p.m. (ESPNU)

Michigan vs. Colorado State, 7:30 p.m. (ESPNews)

SATURDAY

Howard at Ohio State, 11:30 a.m. (ESPN2)

USC vs. Clemson, 3:30 p.m. (ESPN2)

Iowa vs. FDU, 4 p.m. (ESPN)

Illinois vs. Colorado, 9:30 p.m. (ESPN2)

UCLA vs. Cal Baptist, 10 p.m. (ESPN)

WBIT

Wisconsin defeated Oregon State, 62-58. The Badgers advance to Sunday’s matchup against Miami (Fla.).