How to listen to March Madness games using Google Assistant

The 2019 NCAA tournament is drawing to its always-thrilling conclusion. There are only fifteen games left, as the Sweet Sixteen round starts Thursday and goes into the weekend. 

Every game can be seen on TNT or CBS, or streamed online using a cable login; however, if you can’t do either of those things or simply prefer the dulcet tones of Westwood One’s commentators, Google has a treat for you. 

Google announced on Wednesday that devices with Google Assistant can now bring March Madness to you with a simple voice command. Saying “Hey Google, play NCAA March Madness on Westwood One” will start a radio broadcast of any tournament game without the hassle of seeking out a livestream yourself.

Aside from bringing you radio broadcasts, Google also announced a few other useful NCAA tourney voice commands. Asking it “When is the next March Madness game?” will, predictably, give you the time and date for the next game in the tournament. “When is the next [insert university name here] game?” and “What’s the latest March Madness news?” are similarly self-explanatory.

Google oddly decided to announce this in the middle of the 2019 tournament instead of before it started. There were plenty of exciting games people could have missed without it, but what’s done is done.

“Hey Google, play NCAA March Madness on Westwood One” is also a somewhat cumbersome voice command, but that’s not a deal-breaker. This will presumably also work with next year’s tournament, so the feature is nice to have regardless.