2017 NCAA Tournament “First Round” - Day 1: Schedule, TV Listings & Open Thread

It is officially the most wonderful time of year college basketball fans!

On Thursday, the 2017 NCAA Tournament debuts with a loaded slate of games, headlined by #1 Villanova’s tough path to a title defense, a wealth of huge opportunities for double-digit seeds to become this year’s “cinderella” and of course, some very intriguing #8-#9/#7-#10 games. Not bad for just the first day of things.

The start of the tournament also gives you only a few more hours to join Building The Dam’s Yahoo! Tournament Pick ‘Em Group, to see how your bracket-picking-skills stack up against the rest of BTD nation. More than anything, just sit back, relax and enjoy the games people as the greatest sporting event of the year comes center stage.

Let the madness begin!

The Schdule

West - #5 Notre Dame v. #12 Princeton (9:15 AM PT, CBS)

East - #5 Virginia v. #12 UNC-Wilmington (9:40 AM PT, TruTV)

South - #4 Butler v. #13 Winthrop (10:30 AM PT, TNT)

West - #1 Gonzaga v. #16 South Dakota St. (11:00 AM PT, TBS)

West - #4 West Virginia v. #13 Bucknell (11:45 AM PT, CBS)

East - #4 Florida v. #13 East Tennessee St. (12:10 PM PT, TruTV)

South - #5 Minnesota v. #12 Mid-Tennessee St. (1:00 PM PT, TNT)

West - #8 Northwestern v. #9 Vanderbilt (1:30 PM PT, TBS)

West - #6 Maryland v. #11 Xavier (3:50 PM PT, TNT)

East - #1 Villanova v. #16 Mount St. Mary’s (4:10 PM PT, CBS)

West - #7 Saint Mary’s v. #10 VCU (4:20 PM PT, TBS)

Midwest - #5 Purdue v. #12 Vermont (4:27 PM PT, TruTV)

West - #3 Florida State v. #14 FGCU (6:20 PM PT, TNT)

East - #8 Wisconsin v. #9 Virginia Tech (6:40 PM PT, CBS)

West - #2 Arizona v. #15 South Dakota (6:50 PM PT, TBS)

Midwest - #5 Iowa State v. #12 Nevada (6:57 PM PT, TruTV)