Vince Marriott: College basketball's playoff system is perhaps the best in all of sports. Even though the regular season means a lot due to the importance of seeding, the ultimate measure of a team's prowess comes down to six do-or-die games in front of a national audience surrounded by tens of thousands of screaming fans. There's nothing else like it. Even better, the first two rounds, which require the greatest amount of time to watch, happen over spring break! So, if your friends all have a different break schedule (as they probably do), settle in March 15-18 to watch the original 64 teams get narrowed down to 16 and experience firsthand all of the storylines that will inevitably come up during this year's March Madness. (Thurs.-Sun., CBS).
Jonathan Gault: It's March, and the Madness is almost upon us. College basketball teams across America will be playing in conference tournaments this week in a final bid to impress the NCAA tournament selection committee. I love all the conference tournaments, but if you're only going to watch one, it has to be the Big East tourney March 6-10. There's so much to like about the Big East great rivalries featuring five ranked teams, the historic Madison Square Garden and the inevitable chaos that results when 16 teams play 15 games over five days. The University of Connecticut won five games in five days last year thanks to the heroics of Kemba Walker, taking the title as the No. 9 seed to set up the Huskies' run to the NCAA Championship. (Final is Saturday, 9 p.m., ESPN).
Nathan Yeo: With the Dartmouth men's hockey team powering through the first round of the playoffs, I'm getting excited for some more college hockey action. This weekend marks the beginning of the playoffs for Hockey East, one of the most competitive college leagues in the country. I've been a Hockey East fan ever since elementary school, when my grandfather took me to my first sports game, a Boston College-Boston University matchup. The Beantown rivalry between the No.1 Eagles and the No. 4 Terriers is one of the most exciting in college sports. Both teams have won national championships in the past few years, and their stars are regularly drafted into the NHL. But Hockey East is more than just the Boston powerhouses, and there should be exciting play from the University of Massachusetts-Lowell and the University of Maine, among others. I'll be rooting for the Terriers to avenge last year's first-round defeat and hopefully win it all at TD Garden. (Saturday, 4 p.m., NESN).
