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between CBS and DirecTV, all of the ESPN stations will do an incredible job of pre- and post-game coverage.

Reading material - although not for the faint of heart at a cost of $30, there is nothing better or more comprehensive than the Blue Ribbon Yearbook Tournament Guide, delivered to the place of your choosing overnight no later than the Monday before the tournament begins (www.blueribbonyearbook.com). This is especially impressive considering that the goal of the contributors to the Blue Ribbon Yearbook is to get the Tournament Guide, which contains 144 pages with two detailed pages on each of the 65 teams selected, to you within 24 hours of the teams being announced. Worst case, if there is any snag on your end, you will have the booklet by Tuesday.

Websites - there are several of worth: ESPN - espn.go.com does an excellent job of capturing the tournament and Joe Lunardi's Bracketology does an incredible job of predicting the teams that will be in the Dance and their approximate seedings in the weeks preceding the tournament. For those of you with additional interest, joining ESPN as an Insider gets you far more detailed information on the website, along with a subscription to the magazine.

Likewise, the work that Mike DeCourcy does at www.thesportingnews.com is exceptional. Between these two websites and the Tournament Guide described above, you have everything you need to become an expert, even from scratch, on the teams in the tournament, your challenge will be finding time to peruse all of the material.

If you are in the right type of situation, give serious consideration to taking the first Thursday and Friday off from work. This will give you "cramming" time the night before the tournament and allow you to fully enjoy the fruits of your labor as the games begin around noon EDT on the first two days and run the rest of the day.

For those of you out there that may choose to place an occasional wager on the game and that want more information on team trends, try: http://www.jimfeist.com/cbbsta ts/fastfacts.aspx - good information regardless.

WHEN DOES IT END: Congratulations if this is a new experience for you - you have 10 days of tournament games coming up over the next three weeks starting on March 20th and ending on April 8th: 48 games the first weekend, which may wear you out in a good way, but too much so as not to be ready for 12 more games the following weekend, followed by the ultimate three games at the Final Four itself.

The best time of the Sports Year is just around the corner, enjoy!

Learn more about this author, Pete Smits.
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