March Madness?

In Colorado, Division I men's basketball is more like March Sadness or March Badness.

As the rest of hoops nation slips on its dancing shoes, we have become wallflowers, hoping that we might get picked, someday, somehow.

Thank goodness for Northern Colorado and coach Tad Boyle, a product of Greeley Central High School.

If his Bears beat Montana later today, and then win Wednesday's Big Sky Conference tournament championship game, UNC advances to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.

But the Bears are this state's only realistic hope.

CU, under coach Jeff Bzdelik, is 15-15 and 6-10 in the Big 12 heading into the conference tournament. I guess that's an

improvement.

But the Buffs haven't been to the NCAA tournament since 2003. Before that, it was the 1996-97 season with Chauncey Billups. That was the first time the Buffs had been in the tournament in 28 years. That's a dismal track record.

Things aren't any better up in Fort Collins or down at the Air Force Academy. The Colorado State Rams haven't been to the tournament since 2003. Air Force was flying high under Bzdelik, going 50-16 in his two seasons, including a trip to the tournament in 2006. But since Bzdelik left for CU, Air Force has crash landed.

University of Denver coach Joe Scott led the Pioneers to a 19-13 record in the Sun Belt Conference, and they advanced to the tournament semifinals before losing to North Texas on Monday night.

So unless the Bears come through, our state won't have a team in the Big Dance.

That's too bad. Few things in sports can match the passion and intensity of March basketball. Maybe Bzdelik is on the right track in Boulder. Perhaps Tim Miles can instill some hope in Fort Collins.

But for the foreseeable future, it looks like the little guys â€" DU and UNC â€" are the best bets.

Trivia time

In 1997, what team did Billups and the Buffs beat in the first round of the NCAA Tournament? (Answer below).

Polling

Monday's "Lunch Special" poll asked readers to select their favorite baseball movies. "Field of Dreams" led the way with 30 percent of the vote. Placing second was "Bull Durham" (25.8), followed by "Major League" (19.69) and "The Natural" (7.6).

Quotable

Former Nuggets guard Allen Iverson "will either drink himself into oblivion or gamble his life away." â€" Columnist Stephen A. Smith, writing Monday in the Philadelphia Inquirer about the issues Iverson is facing.

Blog spot

Tom Kensler writes that there is a connection between Bzdelik dressing better this season than he did when the Buffs went 9-22 in 2008-09 and won just one conference game.

In case you missed it

Cincinnati Reds left-hander Aroldis Chapman, the Cuban defector, threw a 100 mph fastball at least three times during his spring debut Monday. He pitched two scoreless innings against the Royals.

According to The Associated Press, Chapman wasn't intent on turning heads with his heater.

"I wasn't trying to throw that hard," Chapman said through an interpreter, coach Tony Fossas. "It was good to face someone other than my own teammates. I felt better than I did in the last game. I start slow and as the game goes on, I throw harder."

This day in sports

On this day in 1979, baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn order baseball team to provide equal access to female reporters.

Trivia answer

Billups scored 24 points as the Buffs beat coach Bob Knight's Indiana Hoosiers 80-62.

Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1720 or psaunders@denverpost.com Hungry for more? Sample the Lunch Special menu.