March Madness is underway. My school, UTEP, has quietly climbed to a #21 ranking in the ESPN polls (#24 AP) this past week and just won an excellent thriller with UAB (lead for the first time with less than a minute to go in the game and won it with a basket in the final second, literally) to wrap up the regular season on a 14-game winning streak. But because the NCAA only looks at Big name conferences, UTEP may only get a bid to the dance if they win thier conference tournament this coming weekend. I don't see how a Nationally ranked team should be cut from the field, even if they don't win it. But should they get in, any team that plays UTEP should be concerned. They are one of the fabled 'Dark Horse' teams that would be in the tournament that no one wants to play. GO UTEP MINERS!!!!!

March Madness is underway.

Amen brother! *sings "It's the Most Magical Time of the Year"*

But because the NCAA only looks at Big name conferences, UTEP may only get a bid to the dance if they win thier conference tournament this coming weekend.

Well, the tournament can only hold 64 teams, although in the past several years they've opened it up to 65 with the two lowest ranking seeds battling it out for the right to face the #1 team in the land. There's dozens of conferences involved and the NCAA has to choose carefully to see what would make for the best tournament. The whole week prior to the tournament is called "Bubble Week" where teams anxiously await news to see if they'll be included in the Big Dance and are considered "on the bubble". If UTEP is ranked nationally they stand a very good chance of getting in. I wish they'd expand the tournament a bit, maybe to 96 teams or so, but it'd take forever if they did it like that.

I'm a die hard Duke Blue Devils fan (and relished the lopsided victory over the evil UNC Tarheels this past Saturday) but I'll keep an eye out for UTEP and pull for them too now that I know you're going there.

PS: I just checked UTEP's overall stats...what are you worried about? 24-5 is a thoroughly good record. They'll be there man!

There are two CUSA teams that should make the tourney, UTEP and UAB. Both teams are really good and actually sport better records that some other nationally ranked teams like Georgetown and Ohio State (who is #10 I think). While C-USA has some dud teams in the conference, which one doesn't? They beat out Marshall, perennial power Memphis, UAB twice, and Tulsa, only losing one bad game to Houston. I'm expecting UTEP to make the dance and I expect them to make a Sweet 16 appearance depending on who they draw. Would they beat the likes of Kansas, Kentucky, Duke? I don't know. But this is also the college that was formerly known as Texas Western that won it all in '66 and was the story of the recent movie Glory Road. This may be their best year since then. GO UTEP!!!!

I'm glad there's finally another college basketball fan around here. Let's compare brackets in about a week and a half.

Actually, as of right now, UTEP and Duke would be slated to face each other in the 2nd round. I am very certain that will change as the Conference Tourneys wrap up. It is all but certain that UTEP will be in there, and I only see them being dropped if they lose in the first round of the C-USA tourney.

I don't expect to fill out my own bracket, but I will be following it. With Spring Break and a trip to OK City for a Writer's Conference next week, I'm actually expecting to miss the first round pending on internet access.

When it comes to college sports, I follow a team that I am associated with, but if they aren't in, I usually don't care. If UTEP wasn't doing so well, it wouldn't really matter to me who's in the Big Dance. I tend to follow the pros more than college.

Well, go ahead and fill out a bracket. This stuff really gets in your blood after a while, and UTEP's gotten in before and done well. See what happens . Takes maybe 10 minutes and you'll get bragging points if you call the hard games. There's always some upsets and predicting those are difficult, but if you do it right everyone will think you're the Nostradamus of the NCAA Tournament.

How do you have UTEP and Duke in the 2nd round? They haven't come out with the official brackets yet and anything at this point is major speculation...

Check out the Bracketology speculation on ESPN to find out. It still changes every day at this point. So yes, it is speculation. If UTEP does win it's conference tourney, I expect them to jump up a few seeds but I'd be surprised if they get above a 6 or 5 seed. What I really don't like about the college sports (basketball and football in particular) is that the polls and attention only go the big name schools. UCONN for example, while usually a prennial power, has had a terrible year, and yet they still get more attention than other schools that have done significantly better.

One of the things that the polls use is Strength of Schedule to determine who gets better seeds and rankings. I noticed this in football more than basketball but while the big name schools do play other big names schools, they also fill thier non-conference games with duds. That stats show very interesting comparisons. C-USA this year only has one team with national ranking (UTEP) but it has five 20-game winners, with a sixth just two away (will have to beat UTEP to get it). That's a very tough schedule. UTEP in particular faced at least two other ranked opponents in non-conference play (and lost before they really got their groove). Not only that, UTEP also has one of the best conference records in the nation (at 15-1). Kansas or New Mexico might be the only other team that could boast (correct me if I'm wrong) a one-loss conference record.

My point is that some schools in a non-big name conference actually have tougher schedules than some of others and actually deserve higher seeds or rankings. So using UTEP as an example, are the better than Duke, Kansas or even New Mexico this year? No, they have better records. But they are better than Ohio State, Georgetown and a number of other higher ranked teams with lower records. And I expect we will find out shortly as the tourneys begin.

Check out your favorite team's placement here:

Division I men's bracket

Women's bracket

My alma mater (University of Minnesota) is seeded 11th in the West (Fencer's UTEP is seeded 12th in the same region). Shadowlander's Duke is seeded number 1 in the South.

First-round games begin this Thursday.

I told Fencer his team would get in. He's just a big pessimist.

And now UTEP is deemed one of the Dark Horse teams. They are one of the ones that nobody wants to play. We'll see what happens come Thursday and Friday in the first round.

Looking at the bracket I think UTEP has a good shot at making the Sweet 16, and with a little pinch of good fortune might could even make the Elite 8, but they'll have to play almost perfectly. When there's only 16 left it really gets hard to progress. I'll be pulling for UTEP for ya' man, unless they meet Duke in the final game.

It's already been shown that no team is invicible this year and if UTEP plays to thier potential, I think they can play with anyone. And here is an interesting trivia fact. Thier best player in Randy Culpepper, is listed as 6', but is really more like 5' 10" and he has all the moves that any pro does. And yes, he can dunk from a long ways out.

Aside from UTEP, I'll also be rooting for underdogs. But out of the bottom half of the brackets, I must say UTEP has one of the best chances to advance. I might get to watch the first UTEP game if I get to Oklahoma City on time and get checked in to my hotel quickly. But if they do advance, I will not be able to watch the 2nd round because I'll be in a Writer's Conference all day (and Saturday). GO MINERS!!!!

Sorry, Fencer...I didn't get to watch the game but I had UTEP advancing as far as the Sweet 16 on my bracket. Murray State beat out Vandy, which I had playing UTEP for the Sweet 16 bid...the whole of my West bracket is a big ol' mess now. *groan*

Wake and Texas went down to the wire...I'm not at home and we can't get games here but it must have come down to a buzzer beater...they were in OT with 11 seconds left, with Wake down 1 and they managed to pull ahead by 2. Must have been one heckuva game!

Alas, Minnesota fell to 6th-seed Xavier earlier today.

There have been a number of upsets, such as Old Dominion beating Notre Dame or 14th-seed Ohio defeating 3rd-seed Georgetown.

In the absence of a hometown representative I'll probably just follow the other Big Ten schools as the tournament goes on.

My bracket looks awful, Kansas was my national champ! I've got Ohio State now, Evan Turner is a monster.