Early thoughts and observations now that the men's NCAA field of 65 is full:

* Maryland is the fourth seed in the Midwest region - and the best news of the day is that the regions are named after actual regions, not cities anymore - but is everyone absolutely convinced that if the Terps get by Davidson, they'll get past Butler or Old Dominion? if they don't, they'll be hearing about it forever, considering the disdain the ACC holds for mid-majors and the bitterness from last year's picks. Butler is from the Horizon, ODU the Colonial.

* Old Dominion probably was the last at-large to get in, considering it's one of three at-larges with 12 seeds and it ends up in No. 1 overall seed Florida's bracket.

* More proof that it's not Duke's year: with an early-round pod in Winston-Salem, the Blue Devils were sent to Buffalo, as a No. 6 seed in the West. And, you know, they got sent to the WEST.

* Not a bad pod there in Buffalo: besides Maryland's Midwest bracket, there's Duke, Pittsburgh (which can't be as lame as they looked against Georgetown in the Big East final) and Virginia Commonwealth, who pretty much got a guard named Eric Maynor to single-handedly beat George Mason in the Colonial final with a bunch of steals and nine straight points in the final two minutes.

* The ACC got seven teams in, most of any conference, and it's still mad it didn't get eight. It still feels better than it did last year, when it got just four. Looks like this year might be the year big-foot conferences and mid-majors struck the right balance. The mids got a lot of at-larges in that blew their conference tournaments (wasn't Nevada, a 10 seed in the South, once ranked 10th in the country?).

* Gotta admit, for a first-round conference tournament loss to a lower-seeded team when you're on the bubble anyway, that wasn't a bad loss for Georgia Tech against Wake Forest. You wonder if the committee considered exactly what it took for them to lose that game.

* Syracuse and West Virginia being left out doesn't seem that harsh. Drexel being left out does. But nothing's more cruel than Clemson: say what you will about their fade after their 17-0 start, but they got robbed at Duke and robbed at the ACC against Florida State (Al Thornton, getting NBA star calls already), and those two losses knocked them out.

* For all the talk about the drama of the first day, once again there isn't a 16th seed that seems to have the slightest chance to break the drought against a No. 1. But you have two of the uglier high seeds in the nation at No. 2s, Wisconsin and UCLA, and you ought to root for upsets in their openers just for aesthetics' sake.

* Florida A&M pulls off the best finish of all the one-bid tournaments (buzzer-beating tip-in off an inbound with 1.1 seconds left against Delaware State in the MEAC) and its reward is a play-in game.

* GW really ticked somebody off to be seeded 11th in the East, and get sent to Sacramento for a Thursday game. Worst road trip of any school in this field, maybe ever.

* No matter where they're seeded, no matter who they play, no matter what their record is, Notre Dame is a colossal pain to play. Ask Maryland (from early in the year) and Georgetown (their last game).

* Right-off-the-bat prediction, subject to change before gametime of the opener Thursday: Maryland is seeded like a Sweet 16 team, and that's where they'll get.