New this year, hopefully for this year only, the NCAA Tournament includes 48 teams (vs the standard 64), and will be played entirely in Omaha (presumably in some sort of “bubble”), the early rounds in a “Convention Center,” with as many as 4 matches going on simultaneously.
The tournament begins this Wednesday, April 14, but the Gophers, as one of the top 16 seeds (actually, the #3 overall seed) get a first-round bye. So the Gophers first match will be in the second-round, on Thursday, April 15, against the winner of a first-round match between Georgia Tech and Lipscomb.
#23 ranked Georgia Tech, with a record of 13 & 4, finished the regular season 4th among four closely grouped teams (inc Louisville, Notre Dame and Pitt) in the ACC. The Yellow Jackets are led by #13, unamimous 1st-Team All-ACC junior outside hitter Marianna Brambilla. The Lipscomb Bison are the Champions of the Atlantic Sun Conference. The Gopher should defeat either of these teams, though the GT/Lips winner will have a slight advantage from having already played a match in this unusual (for collegiate v-ball) venue); and advance to the Sweet Sixteen, on Sunday April 18, versus whoever emerges from among Long Island, Pitt, and Utah.
These first two rounds will be “streamed” on some ESPN streaming service (which I don’t think I have), and the Final Four, on April 22 & 24, will be broadcast on ESPN2. I have not been able to figure out the broadcast/streaming plan for the Sweet Sixteen; does anybody know?