Your intrepid correspondents are inside HSBC Arena in overcast, construction-riddled Buffalo, where the weather isn’t dissimilar to what it is back home – unseasonably warm. Davidson is practicing now, with Maryland due to hit the floor in a couple of hours, following the players and coaches’ media availability. That gives us time to discuss a critical topic as the start of the tournament nears: bracket etiquette.

At BWI last night, two guys in suits talked about their brackets in the waiting area throughout the time before boarding. They talked about them getting on the plane, they talked about them as we prepared for takeoff, they talked about them in the first 20 minutes or so after takeoff, they took a break for much of the rest of the one-hour flight, and started again during approach into Buffalo, after landing and after they got off the plane.

They didn’t just talk about them. They talked really loudly about them. They waved their arms. They waved their brackets. They argued details. They cut each other off. They expounded on seeding history, three-point percentages, strength of schedules, conference rankings, coaches, senior classes … everything and everything. Nobody near them in the boarding area could miss them, and practically nobody on the plane could, either. Several passengers turned and stared, or glared, or twisted away to try to tune them out. The bracketologists didn’t notice.

For all I know, they might have been NCAA officials. Or CBS guys. They were dressed like businessmen, but you can’t judge anything based on that (they could have been mobsters, I suppose; hey, NBA players aren’t the only ones assumed to be something because of the clothes they wear). All that was for sure was that they, and their deepest feelings about their brackets, could not be ignored by anyone remotely within earshot.

So: breach of bracket etiquette? Are there unwritten, or even written, codes of conduct about how to act at this time of year, especially in public, around strangers or even your friends? That seems like an obvious one – assuming that not everybody wants to hear about your picks. Maybe there are certain places where you have to keep that sort of thing in check, and others where you can rant and rave at any volume.

Help me out. What are the rules? Send them along, and the best (or most worthy of debate) will be posted later.