The NCAA Tournament's all-day basketball orgies during the workweek are awesome. But they make figuring out how to watch March Madness online critical. How else are you going to pretend at productivity while actually partaking in one of sports' greatest spectacles?

Watching March Madness online is actually quite simple — and we'll explain right here how to make your slacker hoop-dream a reality.

The only (legal) way to watch March Madness online is through the March Madness Live streaming service, which is provided by the NCAA along with its tournament broadcast parters, CBS and Turner. You can use it to live-stream games to your mobile device or computer. You can watch the games CBS carries without login credentials, but will need a cable subscription to access the games that air on TNT, TBS and TruTV.

You can watch March Madness online via the NCAA.com/MarchMadness, CBSSports.com and BleacherReport.com websites. If you want to watch while on the go, the March Madness live app is available via the iOS App Store, Amazon App Store, Windows Store and Google Play. Downloading it is free.

After play-in games finish on Wednesday night, the real action begins Thursday, with some 12 hours of hoops each day. Now that you know how to watch March Madness online, here are the full schedules for Thursday and Friday (all listed in Eastern Time).

March Madness: First round TV schedule

Thursday, March 19

(3) Notre Dame vs. (14) Northeastern ; 12:15 p.m. on CBS

(3) Iowa State vs. (14) UAB ; 12:40 p.m. on truTV

(3) Baylor vs. (14) Georgia State ; 1:40 p.m. on TBS

(2) Arizona vs. (15) Texas Southern ; 2:10 p.m. on TNT

(6) Butler vs. (11) Texas ; 2:45 p.m. on CBS

(6) SMU vs. (11) UCLA ; 3:10 p.m. on truTV

(6) Xavier vs. (11) BYU/Ole Miss ; 4:10 p.m. on TBS

(7) VCU vs. (10) Ohio State ; 4:40 p.m. on TNT

(1) Villanova vs. (16) Lafayette ; 6:50 p.m. on TBS

(8) Cincinnati vs. (9) Purdue ; 7:10 p.m. on CBS

(4) North Carolina vs. (13) Harvard ; 7:20 p.m. on TNT

(5) Utah vs. (12) Stephen F. Austin ; 7:27 p.m. on truTV

(8) N.C. State vs. (9) LSU ; 9:20 p.m. on TBS

(1) Kentucky vs. (16) Hampton/Manhattan ; 9:40 p.m. on CBS

(5) Arkansas vs. (12) Wofford ; 9:50 p.m. on TNT

(4) Georgetown vs. (13) Eastern Washington; 9:57 p.m., truTV

Friday, March 20

(2) Kansas vs. (15) New Mexico State ; 12:15 p.m. on CBS

(7) Michigan State vs. (10) Georgia ; 12:40 p.m. on truTV

(5) Northern Iowa vs. (12) Wyoming ; 1:40 p.m. on TBS

(5) West Virginia vs. (12) Buffalo ; 2:10 p.m. on TNT

(7) Wichita State vs. (10) Indiana ; 2:45 p.m. on CBS

(2) Virginia vs. (15) Belmont ; 3:10 p.m. on truTV

(4) Louisville vs. (13) UC Irvine ; 4:10 p.m. on TBS

(4) Maryland vs. (13) Valparaiso ; 4:40 p.m. on TNT

(8) Oregon vs. (9) Oklahoma State ; 6:50 p.m. on TBS

(1) Duke vs. (16) North Florida/Robert Morris ; 7:10 p.m. on CBS

(7) Iowa vs. (10) Davidson ; 7:20 p.m. on TNT

(3) Oklahoma vs. (14) Albany ; 7:27 p.m. on truTV

(1) Wisconsin vs. (16) Coastal Carolina ; 9:20 p.m. on TBS

(8) San Diego State vs. (9) St. John's ; 9:40 p.m. on CBS

(2) Gonzaga vs. (15) North Dakota State ; 9:50 p.m. on TNT

(6) Providence vs. (11) Boise State/Dayton; 9:57 p.m. on truTV

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