Tournament schedule unveiled
The NCAA Tournament first-round schedule for Thursday and Friday is out. And guess what? Just in case Georgia wasn't tired enough from their incredible three-wins-in-30-hours run through the SEC Tournament, their game with Xavier is the first game of the tourney, tipping at 12:20 PM EDT Thursday. LOL! [CORRECTION: Er, that's the "first game" not counting the play-in game, of course.]
USC-Kansas State is at 7:10 PM Thursday. I imagine it will be the national game, given the Mayo-Beasley matchup, and I'm glad it's not opposite a Tennessee, Vanderbilt or Memphis game, in which case it probably would have been pre-empted here in Knoxville. I'm hoping Belmont won't get special TV coverage for their game against Duke beyond the Nashville market.
Notre Dame-George Mason is at 9:50 PM Thursday (or, more precisely, 30 minutes after the conclusion of the Wazzu-Winthrop game, which tips at 7:20). In terms of which contest will be the national game in that time slot, I think it'll be between ND-GMU and Arizona-West Virginia, but I'd put my money on the latter.
Annoyingly, three of the first-round matchups I'm most interested in watching are all in Friday's first block of games, and all opposite Tennessee-American, which will of course get wall-to-wall coverage here. I'll be at home, as I have Good Friday off, but I'll have to rely on MMOD to watch any of Gonzaga-Davidson, Drake-Western Kentucky or Miami-Saint Mary's. Harumph.
Isn't the play-in game between Mount St. Mary's and Coppin State the first game of the tourney, since it takes place tomorrow?
Yeah, it's to see who can be the lowest-possible 16-seed, but come on Brendan... Show a little pride ;-)
Posted by: jlr | Mar 17, 2008 7:23:42 AM
Good point, Josh. And, hey, Georgia's record is bad enough, the committee could have stuck them in there, if they really wanted to be mean!
Anyway, GO MOUNT ST. MARY'S!!! NEC PRIDE!!! :)
Posted by: Brendan Loy | Mar 17, 2008 8:41:23 AM