The No. 12 seed UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (22-4) will face off against the No. 5 seed Creighton Bluejays (20-8) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday.
The game starts at 3:30 p.m. ET and will be televised nationally on TruTV. But if you don’t have cable or don’t have that channel, here are some different ways you can watch a live stream of Creighton vs UC Santa Barbara online:
(Note that with all of the following options, you’ll also be able to watch other NCAA tournament games, which are on TBS, TNT, TruTV or CBS)
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AT&T TV
AT&T TV has four different channel packages: “Entertainment”, “Choice”, “Ultimate” and “Premier.” TBS, TNT, TruTV and CBS are all included in every package, but it’s worth noting for basketball fans that NBA League Pass is currently being offered at no extra cost in the “Choice” and above bundles, and you can pick any package and any add-on you want with your free 14-day trial.
Note that the free trial isn’t advertised as such, but when you sign up and select whatever bundle and extras you want, you’ll see that — if you’re a new customer — the “due today” amount is $0. You won’t be charged for 14 days, and you can cancel at any time:
Once signed up for AT&T TV, you can watch Creighton vs UC Santa Barbara live on the AT&T TV app, which is available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Fire Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Samsung Smart TV, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet. Or you can watch on your computer via the AT&T TV website.
You can also watch the game via NCAA.com or the March Madness Live app. You’ll need to sign in to a cable provider to watch this way, but you can use your AT&T TV credentials to do that.
If you can’t watch live, AT&T TV also comes with 20 hours of Cloud DVR storage (with the ability to upgrade to 500 hours).
Hulu With Live TV
You can watch a live stream of TBS, TNT, TruTV, CBS and 65+ other TV channels via Hulu With Live TV, which you can try out for free with a seven-day trial:
Once signed up for Hulu With Live TV, you can watch Creighton vs UC Santa Barbara live on the Hulu app, which is available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Samsung Smart TV, LG Smart TV, Android TV, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet. Or you can watch on your computer via the Hulu website.
You can also watch the game via NCAA.com or the March Madness Live app. You’ll need to sign in to a cable provider to watch this way, but you can use your Hulu credentials to do that.
If you can’t watch live, Hulu with Live TV also comes with 50 hours of Cloud DVR storage (with the ability to upgrade to “Enhanced Cloud DVR,” which gives you 200 hours of DVR space and the ability to fast forward through commercials).
Sling TV
You can watch a live stream of TBS, TNT and TruTV (CBS not included on Sling) and 45-plus other TV channels via Sling TV’s “Sling Blue” bundle. This option doesn’t include a free trial, but it’s the cheapest streaming service with these channels, plus you can get $10 off your first month, and get Showtime, Starz, and Epix included for free:
Once signed up for Sling TV, you can watch Creighton vs UC Santa Barbara live on the Sling TV app, which is available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV, or Firestick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV, LG Smart TV, Android TV, airTV Mini, Oculus, Portal, iPhone, Android phone, iPad, or Android tablet. Or you can watch on your computer via the Sling TV website.
You can also watch the game via NCAA.com or the March Madness Live app. You’ll need to sign in to a cable provider to watch this way, but you can use your Sling credentials to do that.
If you can’t watch live, Sling TV comes included with 50 hours of cloud DVR.
Creighton vs UCSB Preview
The Gauchos are fresh from a win in the Big West Conference Tournament, taking down UC Irvine, 79-63. UCSB is led by senior point guard JaQuori McLaughlin, who leads the team in points (16.2 per game) and assists (5.2 per game). McLaughlin is shooting a very respectable 40.4 percent from beyond the arc, and he has been a core piece for the Gauchos, who have won 18 of their last 19 games. Ajare Sanni is adding 12.5 points per game and Amadou Sow is chipping in 11.4 points and 8.4 boards per contest for Santa Barbara.
“I think JaQuori is an NBA point guard,” Pasternack said about his star. “What JaQuori has is something you can’t teach and that’s vision and decision making. His ability of coming off of a ball screen, dribble handoff to make the right play is something you can’t teach.”
The UCSB head coach knows his team is a big-time underdog in this one, but he thinks his guys are up for the challenge. “Creighton is very, very strong,” Pasternack said, per the Santa Barbara News-Press. “They’ve got an NBA point guard in (Marcus) Zegarowski and they’re a very, very good offensive team. It’ll obviously be a big challenge, but it’ll be great for our guys to go against a Big East team.”
On the other side, Creighton is led by the aforementioned Zegarowski, who leads the team in scoring with 15.5 points, as well as a trio of seniors in Damien Jefferson (12.1 points per game), Denzel Mahoney (12.5 points per game) and Mitch Ballock (10.2 points per game).
The Bluejays have a well-rounded group that excels at moving the ball. They’re averaging 77.0 points a game as a unit, and they’ll be going up against a stifling UC Santa Barbara group that boasts the nation’s 19th best defense, allowing just 62.8 points a game.
Creighton is trying to rebound from a lopsided 73-48 loss to Georgetown in the Big East Tournament championship in which the team managed to snag zero defensive rebounds. “Obviously as competitors we’re mad we lost. It’s just such a big game. It was for the championship of our league,” Zegarowski said, via WhiteandBlueReview. “But, you know, there’s bigger things ahead for us. March Madness is a really good time for us to try and turn the page and learn from it. Coach said in the locker room, a game like this really has only happened to us twice — last year versus San Diego State. And we really bounced back (the next game). And our plan is really to bounce back after this one.”
They’ll have their chance to bounce back against a UCSB team that has nothing to lose, and will very likely be playing like it.