The 2016 NCAA Tournament begins Tuesday night with the first two games of the First Four contests, which winnow the field from its full 68 teams to 64 and give four teams entry to March Madness proper.
March Madness 2016: Times, TV schedule and live stream for FGCU-Fairleigh Dickinson, Vanderbilt-Wichita State
Maybe the best First Four game ever will take place on Tuesday.
This year, the teams to open the action are No. 16 seeds Florida Gulf Coast and Fairleigh Dickinson, who will compete for the right to see No. 1 seed North Carolina in Raleigh on Thursday, and No. 11 seeds Vanderbilt and Wichita State, who are playing for a spot against No. 6 Arizona.
FGCU is making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since being christened Dunk City over a magical weekend in 2013, when the Eagles knocked off Georgetown and San Diego State to become the first No. 15 seed to make a Sweet Sixteen. Fairleigh Dickinson hasn’t appeared in the NCAA Tournament since 2005, when the Knights fell to eventual national runner-up Illinois as a No. 16 seed.
Vanderbilt and Wichita State, meanwhile, may be the two teams best positioned to make a run deep into the NCAA Tournament after playing a first game in Dayton, much as VCU did when it pressed its way from Dayton to the Final Four in 2011.
The Commodores were considered a preseason contender to win the SEC, and have plenty of firepower in the form of the inside-outside combination of Damian Jones and Wade Baldwin, both of whom are considered likely first-round picks in the 2016 NBA Draft. And the Shockers counter with the experience of Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet, who were part of Wichita State's 2011 Final Four squad and the team that entered the 2013 NCAA Tournament with an unbeaten record.
While it’s not part of the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Vanderbilt-Wichita State is maybe the best matchup on the entire March Madness schedule prior to the weekend, and could certainly be the best First Four game since the tournament’s expansion to 68 games.
So, yeah, you might want to find truTV on Tuesday night or stream the games on NCAA March Madness Live.
First Four TV Schedule
Tuesday, March 16
6:40 p.m. Eastern, truTV (Andrew Catalon, Steve Lappas, Jamie Erdahl)
No. 16 Florida Gulf Coast vs. No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson
9:10 p.m. Eastern, truTV (Andrew Catalon, Steve Lappas, Jamie Erdahl)
No. 11 Vanderbilt vs. No. 11 Wichita State
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