A tradition unlike any other...Let the Madness begin!
























Wasn't the start of this year's NCAA Basketball Tournament a yawner? Yeah, some lower seeds, notably Davidson, kind of hung around a while, but most ended up getting whipped. And two teams, George Washington and Stanford, didn't even wake up and got hammered. So, there is not much excitement at the end of games, outside of wins from Virginia Commonwealth and Xavier. My pool is hanging in there. Trust me, from many, many experiences, Day 1 means nothing in these pools. But it is shocking to get out of the gate with 15.

Pool Winners (Afternoon): Maryland, Butler, Washington State, Vanderbilt, Boston College, Georgetown, Louisville, Texas A&M (8 for 8)

Pool Winners (Evening): Pittsburgh, Indiana, UCLA, North Carolina, Michigan State, Ohio State, Xavier (7 for 8) Only miss: Duke

BTW, the March Madness On Demand (MMOD) worked again this year. I did hear reports of some having real problems, but I experienced none that were major. I had more glitches with CBS when at halftime of the Ohio State game, they switched to Duke, then back to OSU at the start of the second half. After the Duke audience left to go back to their game, the HD broadcast left, too. It did not come back until they switched back to Duke. Ugh!

MMOD has a larger screen this year and only a few, very temporary glitches. AT&T even sponsors a non-CBS halftime show. The Ohio State game was a blowout, but I was able to watch a much closer Duke-VCU game and could check in on Michigan State's game and look at UCLA, too. Very nice package from the NCAA/CBS/CSTV and whoever else is responsible. It really is a gift from the sport gods.

Meal of Links

















Viacom sues YouTube. Viacom is a sister company of CBS. NCAA Tournament is on CBS. YouTube and Viacom start a NCAA Tourney Channel. Business makes strange bedfellows, huh?
















The worst mascots in Division 1. Tourney teams include: Georgia Tech, Southern Illinois, Florida, Vanderbilt, Ohio State, Purdue, George Washington, Xavier and Stanford.





















Teams to hate in this year's tournament. Looks like Duke is seeded No. 1 there.

Exercise Yard




















The tournament finally woke up with VCU beating Duke. Coach K looked like he should be starring in a Brioschi ad after this one. Even though I had Duke winning two, the whole nation is glad they are gone. Coach K now gets to practice what he preaches, "It's not about winning, it's about relationships."

Visitor

49 Down: "Countdown" host Olbermann (5 letters) Answer: Keith