As March approaches, college basketball fans across the country are preparing for the madness. From the conference tournaments to the NCAA Tournament the time between March and early April is a college basketball fans dream. With 300+ games taking place from the first conference tournament contest to the National Championship, it truly is March Madness.

As always, the NCAA Tournament will take its madness to arenas, centers, and pavilions all over the nation. The second and third rounds are scheduled for March 21-24 at the following venues:

• Palace of Auburn Hills – Auburn Hills, Michigan
• Frank Erwin Center – Austin, Texas
• Sprint Center – Kansas City, Missouri
• Energy Solutions Arena – Salt Lake City, Utah
• Rupp Arena – Lexington, Kentucky
• HP Pavilion – San Jose, California
• UD Arena – Dayton, Ohio
• Wells Fargo Center – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The second and third rounds are always exciting as it is a massive amount of basketball played in just a short span of time. After four days of competition at these various venues only 16 teams will remain in the NCAA Tournament.

Commonly known as the Sweet 16, the Regional Semi-finals will venture off to another set of venues. These venues will also host the Regional Finals, or as it is better known, the Elite 8. The tournament is broken down into four regions (West, South, Midwest, East) and each is played at a separate location. Two of the four venues are ones that normally sanction a sport other than basketball and will require a face lift before the NCAA Tournament can set forth. Home to the West Regionals, the Staples Center is more than familiar with the basketball setup as it is the home of the Lakers and Clippers. The East Regionals hangs on to the basketball venue theme as well taking over the Verizon Center home to the Washington Wizards.As for the remaining two, both are normally filled by football fans and will take on a whole new perspective as basketball fans fill the seats.

The South Regionals will take place at the one and only Dallas Cowboys Stadium. In order to accommodate to a much smaller field of play floor seats will be brought in to surround a wood court that was once 100 yards of turf.

The Midwest Regionals will take a similar approach moving in on the field of the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium. However, for this set up the basketball court will go up surrounded with floor seating in the south end-zone leaving only a portion of the stadium available for seating.

From here the NCAA Tournament will pack up once again and travel to Atlanta, Georgia to transform yet another football stadium for the most anticipated span of the tournament — the Final Four. The Georgia Dome, home to the Atlanta Falcons, will undergo similar changes to that of Jerry-World. Floor seating will be brought in to surround the court that will be placed in the middle of the field.

The most exciting time in college basketball is upon us so don’t get caught watching the games on television wishing you were there instead. Tickets won’t last forever so act fast and get that front row seat to be a part of all the Madness and don’t forget to follow the March Madness bracket at TicketCity.

What a great weekend as the first weekend without football. The Los Angeles Lakers traveled to South Beach and Lebron James was phenomenal as the Heat took down the Lakers.

Notre Dame beat Louisville in 5 overtimes, this is not your father’s Kansas basketball team and the University of Miami might just be the best basketball team in the country. Yes that’s right ‘The U’ might be getting it done in hoops.

The NBA All-Star Game is also heading to Houston.

The University of Texas gets their best player Myck Kabongo back against Iowa State on Wednesday after a 23 games suspension or hijacking by the NCAA, take your pick. Texas is 10 – 13 overall and 2–8 in Big play with 8 games to play. They could go on a massive run to end the season and go 18–13 and 10–8 in conference play. Would that be enough to get them in the NCAA tournament?

Probably not, but it is going to be really interesting to see what he brings to the Longhorn team on Wednesday.

College hoops has a big night when one of historical powerhouses make their way to Austin. The North Carolina Tarheels take on Texas. While this is not one of the stout Tarheel teams that competed for the national championship over the last decade they are ranked in the top 25.

The only other time Texas has faced a ranked opponent this season the game ended with a 23 point loss to Georgetown. This North Carolina game will be followed up by a trip to play Michigan State. Side note – Don’t you just love college basketball where teams can schedule tough games during the season because there is an actual tournament at the end?

Texas is a team full of youth and they are still missing their floor general with Myck Kabongo still being held hostage by the NCAA. Don’t expect that answer to come before the North Carolina game.

The Frank Erwin center is never the most hopping of basketball environments but tonight should be a pretty good night for even the average college basketball fan. If Texas can pull off a win in this game, it could change the trajectory of the 2012/2013 season.

I know I will be all over this game.