Let the Madness Begin! Round 1... Fight!

The NCAA Men's basketball Tourney bracket was released Sunday, and now one of the best weeks in sports is upon us. There were a few surprises like VCU, Portland State, Oklahoma State, Boston College and Mississippi St. that barely made it in with the help of their respective conference tourneys and some teams that got their bubbles burst on Sunday; including Kentucky, St. Mary's, UNLV, Davidson, and Weber State.

This year will be one off the most competitive tournaments ever. Any team has the potential to knock off other teams the way that the season has been going. The four #1 seeds in the tournament are Louisville, UConn, Pittsburgh (Big East teams), and North Carolina, but the #2, #3, and #4 seeds all have been ranked in the top 10 at one point or another during the season.

First round games to make sure you watch (ordered from awesome to good):

Match-up, Location, and Time

• Utah St. vs. Marquette Boise, ID 3/20 @ 12:30pm

The game will be played in Boise, ID close to Utah State and Utah State dominated the WAC and most of the teams that it matched up against and finished with a solid record. USU is playing its best basketball of the season. Meanwhile Marquette has been mixing it up in the Big East Conference knocking off teams that underestimate their talent. Should be a great game and a huge upset if USU knocks off the #4 seed.

• Cleveland St. vs. Wake Forest Miami, FL 3/20 @ 9:40pm

Cleveland St. has had a fairy tale season emerging out of nowhere to dominate in the Horizon League and knock off some talented teams like Syracuse and Butler. Wake Forest has been playing fairly well also, especially earlier this season beating both conference foes Duke and North Carolina.

• Washington vs. Mississippi St. Portland, OR 3/19 @ 5:00pm

Mississippi St. is playing good ball right now and has a young and speedy team much like the build of Louisville's team. They just won the SEC tourney out of nowhere and are poised to win more games. Washington has had a great season and has a deep bench and lots of talented players who have been playing very consistent basketball.

• Ohio State vs. Sienna Dayton, OH 3/20 @ 9:40pm

Sienna from the Metro Atlantic Conf. played very well in the NCAA tournament last season and knocked off then #16 Vanderbilt in the first round. They haven't beat any strong teams this season though. OSU made it into the competitive Big Ten conference tournament championship but lost to Purdue.

• Portland St. vs. Xavier Boise, ID 3/20 @ 7:25pm
  

Xavier has a dominant big man team that should be interesting to watch against the feisty quick ball play of Portland St.

• Clemson vs. Michigan Kansas City, MO 3/19 @ 7:10pm

Two pretty evenly matched teams should make for a great game.

• BYU vs. Texas A&M Philadelphia, PA 3/19 @ 12:30pm

BYU is back for blood after getting knocked out of the Big Dance last year by the Aggies. BYU won the MWC but lost in the tourney to SDSU. A&M meanwhile, has played well but lost their last game at Texas Tech.

For a copy of the games and bracket check here: Bracket