In the vein of what we did last week with our conference tournament Podblasts, this week we’re supplementing our overall bracket Podcast with four region-specific podblasts utilizing each of our experts who will be reporting on different regions throughout the NCAA Tournament. Today we’ll be discussing the Midwest Region with Evan Jacoby and the West Region with Andrew Murawa, both of whom really know these brackets inside and out.

Midwest Region Podblast

West Regional Podblast

In the vein of what we did last week with our conference tournament Podblasts, this week we’re supplementing our overall bracket Podcast with four region-specific podblasts utilizing each of our experts who will be reporting on different regions throughout the NCAA Tournament. Today we’ll be discussing the East Region with Brian Otskey and the South Region with Kevin Doyle, both of whom really know these brackets inside and out.

East Region Podblast

South Region Podblast

RTC is pleased to announce a contest for this year’s NCAA Tournament that will result in one lucky winner receiving a 32″ Toshiba HDTV with 1080p and 3D capabilities. The MSRP on this thing is just under a cool grand ($949.99), but for the person who nails this week’s contest (or comes closest), he or she will get it shipped directly to their door for free. Enough about that — how do you win? The contest specs are below.

There are four steps to this contest, but they’re really easy and will only take you one minute or less to complete.

1. To become eligible, you MUST LIKE our Facebook fan page. Only entrants who have liked our page by Thursday 3/15 at Noon ET will be eligible to win the TV.
2. On the Facebook fan page on the timeline post announcing the contest, list your choices for the SIX LOWEST SEEDED TEAMS TO WIN A SECOND ROUND (THURS/FRI) GAME. A high seed is, for example, a #1 seed; a low seed is, for example, a #16 seed. ONLY list your six lowest-seeded picks — no more, no less.
3. As a tiebreaker, also list your choice for the TOTAL NUMBER OF SECOND ROUND (THURS/FRI) UPSETS. An upset is defined as a lower seed beating a higher seed (even in a #8/#9 game).
4. Once you’ve finished entering your selections, please SHARE your picks with your Facebook friends to spread the word.

DEADLINE: Noon ET, Thursday March 15. One entry per person. No exceptions.

That’s it. The The rest is up to how the ball bounces on Thursday and Friday — a BIG thank you to Toshiba for providing this prize, and GOOD LUCK!!!

And just like that, we are now down to 68 teams vying for a national title. By this time next Sunday, there will be only 16. We’ll continue to update the Circle of March as the remaining teams are eliminated.

In this special edition of the RTC Podcast, we bring in our bracketologist Zach Hayes (@zhayes9) to discuss if any team has a legitimate beef with this year’s NCAA Tournament selections and seedings, and analyze some of the more interesting first round games and storylines. Check back tomorrow as we’ll podblast with two of our four region correspondents to meticulously break down the East and South Regions from top to bottom. But first, here’s the national overview:

It’s that time of year again, and we’re back with the fifth annual Bracket Nonsense competition here at RTC. As always, we’re tying our grand prize into the location of the Final Four, and what’s more New Orleans than the Ricky Rubio of his era (x 10), Pistol Pete Maravich. Maravich of course starred at LSU a little up the road in Baton Rouge, averaging an incomprehensible 44.2 points per game in his three years as a Tiger, and went on to become the toast of The Big Easy during his years as the star of a little-known NBA franchise called the New Orleans Jazz. If there was every a player who more accurately fit a city’s theme of smooth jazz, flash, with some sugar on top, we can’t think of a better fit than The Pistol and ‘Nawlins. Therefore, our grand prize this season is a throwback Maravich Jazz jersey from NBA Hardwood Classics. The second and third place prizes are a little more contemporary, and are listed below. Join up to win!

This Pistol Pete Jersey Goes to Our First Prize Winner

You can click on the links above to get there, but if you’re old school for some reason, the Group Name and Group # is below:

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For the last week or so, we’ve been writing up brief descriptions of what to consider on each of the 31 automatic qualifiers for the NCAA Tournament. While it’s true that there are 37 other NCAA teams in the field, we’re going to bank on the fact that you already know most of those. This series will help you break down many of the smaller conference teams that you may not have seen play all season (or at most, once). And keep in mind that we’ll be coming hard with analysis on each region Monday and game-by-game breakdowns as well throughout the week. The best time of the year is here, folks — let’s enjoy it!

For the entire series of posts, click here. Otherwise find the team(s) you’re interested in below.

East Region

• #3 Florida State
• #5 Vanderbilt
• #12 Harvard
• #13 Montana
• #14 St. Bonaventure
• #15 Loyola (MD)
• #16 UNC-Asheville

South Region

• #11 Colorado
• #12 VCU
• #13 New Mexico State
• #14 South Dakota State
• #15 Lehigh
• #16 Western Kentucky
• #16 Mississippi Valley State

Midwest Region

• #7 St. Mary’s
• #8 Creighton
• #13 Ohio
• #14 Belmont
• #15 Detroit
• #16 Lamar
• #16 Vermont

West Region

• #1 Michigan State
• #2 Missouri
• #4 Louisville
• #5 New Mexico
• #6 Murray State
• #8 Memphis
• #12 Long Beach State
• #13 Davidson
• #15 Norfolk State
• #16 LIU

It’s an old familiar name versus a new one in the Atlantic 10 Tournament championship game, as Xavier will match up against surging St. Bonaventure on Sunday afternoon with a guaranteed bid on the line.

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Twenty more eliminations on Friday and 10 more on Saturday means that there are now only 82 teams still alive with hopes and dreams of the 2012 National Championship. Of course, the actual number is somewhat less than that, but we’re not going to get in the business of predicting the whims of the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee here — that’s for the bracketologists and others to do. Tomorrow’s four championship games won’t help solve that problem, but a certain television show that broadcasts on CBS at 6:00 PM ET certainly will. We’ll see you again when we have the 68 locked in…

Joe Dzuback filed this report from the Atlantic 10 Tournament semifinals in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Coach Rick Majerus is a Gentleman. The Saint Louis coach was as effusive in his praise of Xavier, winners over his Saint Louis team earlier today, as he was of La Salle, the Billikens quarterfinal victim on Friday. The coach began each of his postgame press conferences this weekend with complementary remarks about the play and dedication of their opponents. The referee crew assessed Saint Louis player Brian Conklin with a “Flagrant 1” foul early in the second half, effectively benching Saint Louis’ man in the middle for another precious five minutes during a crucial part of the second half. The call put Tu Holloway on the line and gave the ball back to Xavier. Given how miserly Saint Louis is with possessions, giving the ball back to Xavier must have hurt at least as much as the free throws. When asked about that call and some of the other no-calls at the end of regulation, Majerus, in a sharp contrast to NC State Coach Mark Gottfried’s postgame comments, blamed himself for not being more demanding on his players.

Does the NCAA Tournament Have Room For a Fourth A-10 Team?

Two, Three or Four? Speculation over the number of bids the conference could get took a dramatic turn this afternoon when Xavier eliminated Saint Louis in its semifinal game. Both Temple and Saint Louis will get at-large bids, leaving the third bid to go to the conference tournament winner tomorrow. If, as suggested by RTC’s Zach Hayes and CBSSports’ Jerry Palm, Xavier is in, then a Saint Bonaventure win tomorrow should bring a fourth bid to the conference. Will the Selection Committee see it that way? The conference final is played on Sunday and for the last two postseasons, the Selection Committee appears to have set the conference’s seeds on Saturday night rather than working out alternative scenarios that might account for multiple outcomes. By seeding the 2009-10 tournament champion Temple #5 and runner-up Xavier #6, and the 2010-11 tournament champion Richmond on the #12 seed line, the committee appears to settle on a compromise seeding  that would account for either outcome (a Temple or Xavier win in the 2009-10 conference tournament and Richmond or Dayton win in the 2010-11 conference tournament) in the conference tournament championship game. Will the committee develop a “compromise seed line” this time around? According to virtually every bracketologist near a microphone tonight, Xavier’s win over Saint Louis seals a bid for the Muskies irrespective of tomorrow’s outcome. Of course having Xavier Athletic Director Mike Bobinski on the Selection Committee should also help motivate the committee to do its homework.

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