Today is the day that the men and women's major college basketball teams are selected for their respective championship tournaments' 68-team fields...along with the second-tier National Invitation Tournament. My hometown women's University of Florida team made a dramatic improvement this year at 21-10 and made the NCAA tournament...they'll play the University of Central Florida in the first round. The men's team not only didn't make it to the championship tournament this year, but they also lost their coach, Mike White, who left the Gators to fill the head coaching vacancy at Georgia. Florida...with a 19-13 record... did make it, though, to the N.I.T. and will play their first-round game against Rick Pitino-coached Iona...some fan made the perfectly reasonable comment (reasonable to me, a Pitino fan) that Gainesville shouldn't let him leave town before signing him on as Florida's new coach. For me, I like my local teams to do well, but as far as the NCAA tourney is concerned, by this time next week the surviving teams for each one will be down from 68 to 16. Texas A&M, which beat Florida in the Southeastern Conference tournament a few days ago and made it all the way to the finale, was thoroughly ripped off by the NCAA selection committee and snubbed...they're in the N.I.T. as well. As for the men's NCAA tournament, I plan to root for Miami, North Carolina and Kansas...and just enjoy the other games I'm able to watch. I'm not sure about the exact dates for the tournaments, all of which are commencing this week...my strategy is since I'm scheduled to work until 10 pm Monday through Friday I'll just check out what's currently showing on TV when I do get home...
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