It's That Time of Year Again

March Madness!
Every year brings new surprises to the NCAA Tournament and this year looks to be no exception.
Remember last year when Butler almost stunned the nation by pushing Duke to the final horn before losing a two-point decision in the Championship Game.
The various conference tournaments are going on this week and in fact, some have already wrapped up with some of the mid-major teams already qualifying for the NCAA Basketball Tournament, which gets started next week.
The Big East is loaded again in 2011, and boasts perhaps the deepest field of qualifiers for the tourney this year.
Pittsburgh, Notre Dame and Syracuse headline the conference along with Louisville, St. John's (NY), West Virginia, Cincinnati, Georgetown, Villanova and Connecticut rounding out the best conference in collegiate hoops.
Yes, the Big East may field ten teams in the tournament brackets this year.
Right behind the Big East is the Atlantic Coast Conference and Big Ten.
Defending champion Duke is right there in the thick of things along with North Carolina (which won it all two years ago) in the ACC tournament.
The Big Ten features top-ranked Ohio State and a solid contender in Purdue. Wisconsin also looms large in the Big Ten and even Illinois, which always seems to peak during the conference tournament.
Out West is Brigham Young, which has had a big season and San Diego State as well.
The Pac Ten Conference has Arizona and UCLA, along with USC and Washington waiting to do battle in that conference tournament this week.
There are so many other conference tournaments taking place in the next week and no doubt some teams that may not be so deserving after so-so seasons may get hot for three or four days and sneak into the field.
There will no doubt be both joy and heart break as the field is announced next Sunday evening for the 2011 version of the tournament.
But one thing is for certain, there are no certainties in college basketball and this year may be even more surprising than last year's tournament.
Stay tuned!