The 2017 NCAA Basketball Tourney As I See It

Having been at work during the first round of the 2016-17 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Tournament on Thursday and Friday, I've already missed more than half the tournament's 63 total games...not that I would have watched them all had I had the chance.  But here I am on Saturday afternoon and the second round is now underway to pare the field of teams down from 32 to 16.  Earlier I watched Notre Dame bow to West Virginia in the day's first contest...and now defending champion Villanova just got upset by 8th seed Wisconsin...no repeat champions this year!  Later today in Orlando, Florida State will play Xavier and then the University of Florida will face Virgina...the Seminoles should advance but "my" Gators are pretty evenly matched against their ACC opponent...good luck to both my home state's teams!  I was disappointed that  Miami (badly) lost their game yesterday and is out of the tournament.  I traditionally support North Carolina, and the Tarheels are seeded number one in their region...they will play Arkansas early tomorrow evening to try to advance.  As for which team I think will eventually win it all...well, I have a feeling that Kansas may be the one to put it all together this time around.  But after mentioning this to a co-worker who is also a sports fan, he suggested that Arizona should be considered, too.  Then, there are also Gonzaga, Duke, UCLA, Oregon, Kentucky, and so on...

Now that Villanova has been eliminated, that makes 25 years now during which only one school has managed to put together back-to-back NCAA Men's Division One Basketball championships: the University of Florida (my alma mater) who pulled it off in 2005-06 and 2006-07.  This year's edition of the Fightin' Gators isn't quite as star-studded as that earlier group, which included future NBA players Al Horford, Joakim Noah, and Corey Brewer, but it works very cohesively as a unit under second-year head coach Mike White.  Unfortunately, their starting center John Egbunu suffered a season-ending injury a month ago and they have been struggling to fill in the gap caused by his absence.  But if they can shoot well in their game against Virginia, Florida should be in a good position to win and then be competitive against the next opponent: those impressive Wisconsin Badgers who put just put away the defending champs.  Now please excuse me while I get ready for the next game...