It's March. That means a couple of things.

First, warm weather is here--well maybe not here in Cambridge--but it's close to spring anyway. And spring of course means SPRING BREAK.

More importantly, March brings with it the madness they call the NCAA basketball tournament.

It's simply madness. There is no other word for it. Dollar after dollar is thrown into tournament pools, upset after upset occurs, and columnist after columnist makes a fool of himself with printed tournament predictions.

I am no different. I feel the need to cross this journalist's rite of passage, and thus I offer my picks for this year's tournament.

First though, a word about the teams in the tournament, or more specifically the selection of the teams in the tournament.

I, for one, would like to know what kind of drugs the selection committee was on when they made their selections.

Manhattan over Georgia Tech. Absurd.

Santa Clara over George Washington. Ludicrous.

Even Virginia Tech and St. Joseph's deserved to be in the tournament more than two other at large teams, Miami (OH) and Minnesota.

I realize its fun to cheer for the smaller school, but not at the expense of better quality basketball.

The selection committee said it wanted the 35 best at-large teams in the tournament. I don't think they got them.

But alas, that is only my opinion and it really doesn't count for much.

That aside, I now present to you The Vent's 1995 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament picks:

The Final Four: I'll take Arkansas, Wake Forest, North Carolina and Maryland.