College basketball's national championship game on Monday night between North Carolina and Villanova figures to be really, really good. But it's hard not to get the impression that it could be all downhill from here because the game opened up with an absolutely stirring rendition of the national anthem, boomed out from midcourt at NRG Stadium in Houston.
The man behind the microphone on this gem is named Generald Wilson. He's got an incredible voice and seems to have a great story, too.
The St. Louis native is a retired Navy petty officer.
The NCAA does a lot of silly and bad things sometimes, but its national anthem selections for the Final Four have been absolutely on point. Before the event started on Saturday, the organization had student-athletes from all four Final Four schools sing the anthem together in a nice show of unity that also sounded great.
But Wilson brought the house down. That's one of the best anthems in a long while.