The First Four is here, officially kicking off 2017’s NCAA tournament. The tournament field is 68 teams, but just 64 reach the official “first round” of play. Four of them will be eliminated in games over the next two nights, with the first two of those happening Tuesday at UD Arena in Dayton, Ohio — home of the Dayton Flyers.
March Madness schedule 2017: Tuesday’s games for NCAA Tournament First Four
The NCAA tournament starts Tuesday night.
The First Four’s a cool part of the Big Dance. Its eight teams are No. 16 seeds and No. 11 seeds. For the 16s, these games are a chance to play genuinely competitive NCAA tournament games before running up against a No. 1 buzzsaw in the first round. For the 11s, they’re likely more stressful, but the games can be fun for the rest of us. Tuesday night’s 11-11 game, between Kansas State and Wake Forest, should be great.
Here’s Tuesday night’s schedule, which is all of two games:
No. 16 New Orleans vs. No. 16 Mount St. Mary’s, East Region
6:40 p.m. ET, truTV
No. 11 Kansas State vs. No. 11 Wake Forest, South Region
9:10 p.m. ET, truTV
The winner of New Orleans-Mount St. Mary’s meets No. 1 Villanova on Thursday in the East region. The winner of Kansas State-Wake Forest will play No. 6 Cincinnati out of the South on Friday. That sets up as a good game, no matter who’s playing.
Both of these games should be fairly close.
New Orleans should be considered a slim favorite against The Mount, because the Privateers’ defense is by far the best unit on either of the two teams.
The main event, at least in the eyes of most TV viewers, will be K-State-Wake Forest about a half hour after the No. 16 seeds’ game ends. That sets up as a fun clash of strengths: K-State’s good defense against Wake’s elite offense.
If the Demon Deacons can play an up-tempo game and make their shots, as they’ve been doing since the start of the month, they should win. If forward John Collins, one of the country’s best offensive rebounders, can clean up a few misses and get his put-backs, that’ll give the Deacs’ shooters a margin for error they may not even need.
On another hand, Kansas State defends well, and sometimes basketballs refuse to go through the hoop. K-State can’t score like Wake can, so the Wildcats should try to slow the game down and eke out enough stops to win a low-scoring affair.
Here’s a printable tournament bracket:
Click this link to download it, or click below to enlarge it:
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