NCAA men's tournament gets under way

OK, so the NCAA won't let us use the word M@dness during the tournament. It seems that CBS and the NCAA have got exclusive rights to just about every phrase we've grown up with.
Maybe they should stop worrying about how they can suck the last dollar out of their fanbase and fix the college football postseason.
But I digress.

Pretty soon, if Billy Packer says it, it will go right into the Bible.
And talk about hypocrisy, we were, weren't we? The NCAA has a tournament bracket challenge on its web site. Somewhere Rick Neuheisel is shaking his head.

Anyway I'll take you through the Big Dance, oops, the college basketball tournament daily with observations and picks in this blog.

Here are the odds to win the tournament. Sure, you'll see places where some teams are 1 trillion-to-one to win the event, but if you really want to bet you'll never get those odds at real sports books.
Here are they are from one site, in alphabetical order:

American 2000/1
Arizona 80/1
Arkansas 150/1
Austin Peay 1000/1
Baylor 150/1
Belmont 1500/1
Boise State 750/1
Butler 125/1
BYU 200/1
Cal State Fullerton 1500/1
Clemson 40/1
Connecticut 40/1
Coppin State 2500/1
Cornell 750/1
Davidson 150/1
Drake 80/1
Duke 14/1
George Mason 500/1
Georgetown 14/1
Georgia 250/1
Gonzaga 125/1
Indiana 100/1
Kansas 5/1
Kansas State 75/1
Kent State 200/1
Kentucky 150/1
Louisville 18/1
Marquette 55/1
Memphis 6/1
Miami Florida 100/1
Michigan State 50/1
Mississippi State 80/1
Mississippi Valley State 2500/1
Mount St. Mary's 2500/1
North Carolina 4/1
Notre Dame 60/1
Oklahoma 150/1
Oral Roberts 500/1
Oregon 150/1
Pittsburgh 30/1
Portland State 2500/1
Purdue 70/1
Saint Joseph's 250/1
Saint Mary's 150/1
San Diego 500/1
Siena 500/1
South Alabama 200/1
Stanford 25/1
Temple 500/1
Tennessee 18/1
Texas 14/1
Texas A&M 200/1
Texas Arlington 2000/1
UCLA 4/1
UMBC 2000/1
UNLV 250/1
USC 45/1
Vanderbilt 50/1
Villanova 250/1
Washington State 40/1
Western Kentucky 500/1
West Virgnia 125/1
Winthrop 500/1
Wisconsin 25/1
Xavier 35/1

Playdown game

No team wants to play in the dreaded No. 64-65 game on Tuesday night but Mount St. Mary's and Coppin State drew the short straw. The Mount is favored by 7 points in the contest and should win the game but these games are usually close.
Mount St. Mary's is not unfamiliar to area fans. The Mount knocked out Quinnipiac in the first round of the Northeast Conference tournament and later won the NEC title at Sacred Heart.
They've gotten healthier as the season has progressed and are a deep team with Jean Cajou coming off the bench to lead the team in scoring down the stretch. They won't scare North Carolina but should get a chance to play in the tournament proper.

I'll go through my picks sure to tarnish your office pool tomorrow.