More photos » Tony Gutierrez - AP

Something tells me this man will have the K-State Wildcats focused on the task at hand.

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No. 2 seed Kansas St. Wildcats (26-7) VS. No. 15 seed North Texas Eagles (27-8)

NCAA Tournament — First Round
Ford Center — Oklahoma City, Okla.
Thursday, March 18 — approx. 1:40 PM CST

CBS Sports | March Madness On Demand

It's time for March Madness!

Only four No. 2 seeds have fallen in the first round since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams, which equates to a 2-seed success rate of 98 percent.

Let's hope the Cats keep their eyes on the prize and don't become the fifth.

They should handle this game with ease, but any team capable of losing to Iowa State at home on Senior Night also is capable of losing to a mid-major conference tournament champion.

As always, "survive and advance" is the name of this game.

For K-State's game notes, follow the jump.

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We will have another open thread specifically for K-State's game, but SB Nation has partnered CBS for March Madness On Demand to bring you a way to follow the Championship without ever leaving SB Nation. Launch Player

The greatest sporting event on the planet starts later today. Enjoy!

RPI WATCH now morphs into TOURNEY WATCH, since there is no more reason to track K-State's resume.

Thus, I have removed the RPI information for all teams, as well as K-State's strength of schedule, quality wins, etc.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I was heavily rooting for Texas Tech last night, even before Herb Pope's cheap shot to Darko Cohadarevic's pills. As I said in the final BIG 12 OUTLOOK, I'm rooting for Big 12 teams to meet and beat Big East teams whenever possible.

Well, it doesn't get much better than Tech, a non-bubble team, going on the road and destroying a Seton Hall team that many talking heads argued should be in the NCAA Tournament. Even better, despite the poor attendance, SHU apparently was so mad about it that Pope lost control.

That happened in another game last night, too. Hey, guys — it's the NIT! No reason to get so into it — it's a glorified exhbition, albeit one I'm watching intently, since all 32 teams are exactly the sort that probably will be in next year's expanded 96-team crapfest.

And as already has been noted on the site, BOTC fan favorite Arkansas-Pine Bluff lived to fight another day. I'm sure you'll all be rooting intently for the Golden Lions to knock off despised Duke, but don't hold your breath.

Lastly, South Dakota lost its first-round game in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament to Creighton, but that shouldn't diminish the season the Coyotes had. With a 22-10 record, a 13-game winning streak to end the regular season and a Great West championship in hand, I think they're pretty pleased with what they did this year.

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More photos » Matt Slocum - AP

Duke might be the No. 1 seed, but this Cat is the most experienced and gutsiest player in the entire South Region.

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The slight name change for this feature is a result of my realizing that I unintentionally "borrowed" the name of a fellow SBNation blog. Sorry, Chris.

Now on to important business. Click here to enter the 157th annual BOTC Bracket Challenge. The group name is BOTC: Bring On The Cats and the password is BracketCat.

Then follow the jump for discussion of the South Region, which finally is complete as of three hours ago.

Previous Entries:

• East Region
• Midwest Region

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Selection Sunday has come and gone, but I thought I'd take one last look at the Big 12's computer profiles, just for curiosity's sake.

Follow the jump if you're equally curious.

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More photos » Ed Zurga - AP

The Jayhawks are the best team in the hardest region. Will they be able to win their second national championship in three years?

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As you might have noticed, I went back and added predictions for all games in the East Region, courtesy of RealTimeRPI, Ken Pomeroy and Jeff Sagarin. I'll continue doing that for each region, of course.

Follow the jump for discussion of the Midwest Region, a.k.a. the Bracket of Death.

Previous Entry:

• East Region

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More photos » E. DeGasero - AP

It's BracketCat's favorite time of the year! Brackets galore!

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This is it — the final RPI WATCH of the regular season.

Since the only game of note yesterday was Fort Hays State's loss to conference foe Central Missouri in the NCAA Division II Tournament, I went ahead and updated everyone's RPIs and rankings with the final numbers, in order to justify posting this.

I will continue this feature through the next three weeks (albeit likely with a new name), not so much to follow the NCAA Tournament — because everyone and their dog will be glued to that for the rest of March — but more to follow the obscure tournaments — the NIT, the CBI and the CIT — so no one else has to waste time paying attention to them.

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More photos » Wade Payne - AP

DeMarcus Cousins' gutsy shot to end regulation helped preserve Kentucky's winning streak and pushed the Wildcats to a No. 1 seed in the East Region.

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More than a year since I joined the site, the Wildcats are back in the NCAA Tournament — which means I finally can introduce a new feature that's been in the back of my mind ever since I first adopted my moniker.

So join me every night at midnight, from now until the first games ("real" games — Dayton doesn't count) tip off Thursday, as I break down a different region each night and offer some insights to consider when making your picks.

Hit the jump for discussion of the East Region.

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