March Madness begins!

It's finally here. March Madness will be in full swing today. I filled out my brackets and once again I went with my heart and included my Arizona Wildcats in the Final Four. I know, I'm a dreamer and that is probably the main reason I'm not rich and famous.

If you're an old fella like me, retired and no longer trying to out-do your fellow co-worker in an office pool, you can afford to pencil in the hometown team if you want. Your chances, of course, are slim. It's like winning the lottery.

As we head into today's second round games (remember those play-in games are considered the first round), I try to look back at those NIT first-round and BCI first-round games, which were completed earlier in the week, looking for signs, although meaningless signs if you will, to come up with some kind of a gage as to what's coming. You know the old scenario if such-an-such beats such-an-such then it's possible that such-an-such can advance to the Sweet Sixteen and maybe even the Final Four.

In other words, you can get yourself in a real dither before the referee throws up the first ball today.

I'm picking (and I hate all three) Kansas, Duke and Indiana to advance to the Final Four, along with my Arizona Wildcats. If I hit the sofa, close my eyes and dream, I can see the crowd roaring on April, 6 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta -- the electronic sign at center court pulsating with the names of the Jayhawks, the Blue Devils, Indiana and my very own ARIZONA WILDCATS!

What I do know, as of right now, which is a good 12 hours before my Wildcats take the floor in Salt Lake, is this: The Pac-12 is 2-1 in the NIT with a convincing win by Arizona State over Detroit, a nail biter (but a win is a win) by Stanford over Stephen F. Austin and a loss by Washington as the Huskies fall by 11 to BYU.

And by the way, Kentucky loses a first-round NIT game to Robert Morris!

What I can ascertain from the above is absolutely nothing!

As for the CBI, Purdue beat Western Illinois, Houston beat Texas and Wyoming, once an undefeated team, back in December, beat Lehigh by one point.

All I know for sure is this: My Arizona Wildcats must defend the ball from the get go today against the Belmont Bruins, a team that lives and dies by the three. I hope it'll be an early funeral for the upset-minded Bruins from Nashville, Tennessee.

There is probably some poor sport's nut, living in Nashville, who woke up this morning and filled out his or her bracket. The Bruins' diehard fan penciled in Belmont in the Final Four. Now there's a dreamer!