You Are Not Invited, Jim Boeheim

I hate how CBS does this. You've got teams sweating it out, nervous wrecks waiting to see if they'll get in... and the show opens with Greg Gumbel explaining how a single-elimination tournament works. Then we spend about three more minutes with Gumbel spouting off as many words as he possibly can about each #1 seed, none of whom was a real surprise (Florida, UNC, Kansas, and Ohio State). Then, a commercial break.

It might be the most infuriating and frustrating half-hour on television. CBS doesn't see it as an opportunity to inform and entertain the viewers, they see it as an opportunity to inflict pain on the audience. They hate you. They might as well bring back the guys in that Applebee's commercial and have them sing you a 40-minute song announcing the pairings.

Here's what you need to know about the bubblers:

In: Arkansas, Purdue, Old Dominion, Illinois, Stanford NIT-bound: Syracuse, Drexel, Kansas State, Florida State, Air Force, West Virginia, Missouri State, Mississippi State

And some of the more interesting seeds: Butler got a 5, Maryland a 4, Winthrop an 11, Southern Illinois got a 4, Duke got a 6, UNLV a 7, Marquette an 8, Texas a 4, and Florida A&M will play Niagara in the play-in game, which the NCAA people insist is a real tournament game, but really isn't.