(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

After a whirlwind week across conference postseason play, we’re on the eve of the official Selection Sunday bracket reveal. If that doesn’t have you ready to run through a wall, man, I have no idea what will.

Ivy Madness has lived up to the hype, Penn and Harvard giving Princeton and Columbia a run for their money. Louisiana Tech had Middle Tennessee on the back foot much of the game until the Raiders pulled away late. Maine, one of my favorite mid-majors, waltzed into its first tournament appearance since 2019 and third under coach Amy Vachon. Top-seeded Hawaii fell to UC Davis in the Big West tournament, advancing the Aggies to a championship meeting against UC Irvine. A win for the Anteaters would push them to their first NCAA Tournament since 1995.

Across every corner and region of basketball, history is being made and excitement is rising. March is in full swing.

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

Bracket Watch HQ is also home to a 5-year-old, who has recently discovered a new favorite song. Which means we’ve been forced to listen to it on an endless Spotify loop:

Yes, for those of you without children or an aversion to cartoons, that’s Reel 2 Real’s relentlessly dumb but inescapably catchy 1993 hit “I Like to Move It,” remade for the “Madagascar” movie franchise. You’re welcome for the earworm.

It also reminds us that things are always changing and growing in unexpected ways. Take the NCAA Tournament, for example (segue alert!). Dana O’Neil reported this week that tournament expansion remains a very likely outcome, but the field would only grow by a modest four to eight teams. Perhaps we’ve reached the acceptance stage of our grief, but we can move forward with a few more play-in games if that’s what it takes to keep the barbarians at the gate.

It’s also time for teams to make their moves in our latest mock bracket, now just nine days from Selection Sunday. Conference tournaments have begun, and the power conferences get going with their postseasons next…

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

In 1986, religious scholar James P. Carse published an influential book called “Finite and Infinite Games.” Finite games, in Carse’s definition, are those that have defined rules and declare winners and losers. The infinite game, on the other hand, is that which “changes rules, plays with boundaries and exists solely for the purpose of continuing the game.” The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson wrote an insightful piece in 2022 about how Major League Baseball’s pursuit of solving the finite game through analytics damaged the infinite game — i.e., creating an enjoyable experience for fans to watch.

There is no game quite as finite as the NCAA Tournament, where the hopes and dreams of a school and its fans can be crushed in a single-elimination, 40-minute contest. But as we await another incredible tournament here on the first day of March (huzzah!), we have to wonder: Who is looking out for the infinite game?

In a recent interview with ESPN, NCAA president Charlie Baker indicated that he’s open to the idea of expanding the tournament if it’s “done with care and…

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

Charles McClelland’s first vote as a member of the men’s NCAA Tournament selection committee was whether to cancel the 2020 event because of COVID-19. In his second year on the committee, much of his time was spent discussing protocols to play the tournament without fans in the Indiana bubble.

So now that McClelland is the 2024 selection committee chairman and has to lead the group in sorting out a chaotic season, he can put things in perspective.

“Debating bubble teams is so much better than saying, ‘If somebody catches COVID, will we allow that team to participate or not?’” said McClelland, who is also the SWAC commissioner. “We’re actually talking basketball now, which is what we all enjoy.”

The committee convened last week and talked a lot of basketball before releasing its initial top 16 seeds. “The only problem,” McClelland joked, “is that the teams then went out and played games.”

Nine of the top 16, including the No. 1 and No. 2 overall seeds Purdue and UConn, have lost since the reveal. But that’s the 2023-24 season in a nutshell. While the committee…

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

In 1997, the Fox network began airing a series of TV specials called “Breaking the Magician’s Code: Magic’s Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed,” in which a masked man showed how to pull off such tricks as sawing a woman in half and making an elephant disappear. The show briefly became a minor sensation — it was the ’90s; you had to be there — even though it was all very silly, with fog machines and self-serious music cues.

In the finale of the original series, the masked magician revealed himself as Las Vegas performer Val Valentino. He was immediately sued by other, furious illusionists. (And there are few things funnier than angry magicians.)

We find ourselves thinking about Valentino, both because it’s Valentine’s Day week and because some secrets we care deeply about will soon be exposed to the world. The men’s NCAA Tournament selection committee gathered this week and will release its current top 16 seeds on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. ET on CBS. No, there won’t be as many smoke and mirrors as “Breaking the Magician’s Code,” but if our pal Seth Davis wanted to…