It’s officially March, so it’s officially time for some madness.

Unfortunately for men’s basketball fans on the Farm, Stanford isn’t exactly the best campus to be on during the Big Dance.

The first issue is the academic one. I feel like I’ve tackled this one in the past. As college basketball warms up for its big tournament in a week with conference tournaments this week, Stanford similarly prepares for its culmination–Finals Week–with its preamble, Dead Week. (And if somebody could explain to me what, if anything, is dead about Dead Week, that would answer a question I’ve been trying to address for five years now).

The second issue is that Stanford’s men’s basketball team is a complete non-factor in the madness. The Cardinal ended its regular season with a less-than-inspiring (to put it nicely) performance at rival Cal last weekend–the Bears shellacked the Cardinal, who at one point looked like it may not score 20 points all game, but managed to put up 55 in a 19-point loss. Now Stanford must win a play-in game just to be a part of the Pac-10 tournament. If the Cardinal can beat Oregon State in that play-in game, it gets a date with the No. 1 seed, Arizona. That leaves Stanford’s chances of going dancing about even with the chances that the Minnesota Timberwolves make the NBA playoffs–not going to happen.

What is unfortunate is that Stanford juniors have never enjoyed a Stanford basketball game in the NCAA tournament. The last time the Cardinal played in the tournament, it lost in the Sweet Sixteen to Texas. That was 2008–Trent Johnson was still the team’s coach and the Lopez twins (Brook and Robin) were still locking down the paint. Now Trent Johnson is at LSU (although that may not last), the Lopez twins are NBA fixtures and Stanford looks to be nowhere near where it needs to be to get back to the tournament.

Sure, the Cardinal has some promising young players–but this is not a Stanford team of the late 90s or early 2000s. It is still a team that lacks athletes, consistent point guard play and star power. When Stanford will return to the Big Dance is anyone’s guess.

There is good news for basketball fans–this is shaping up to be one heck of an NCAA tournament. There is no clear-cut favorite and any number of teams are capable of cutting the nets down in early April.

Ohio State and Kansas have to be seen as the two <I>favorites<P>, but even that is a stretch. Defending champion Duke has looked beatable in recent weeks, Texas has gone through a pseudo-collapse and BYU recently kicked one of its best players off the team.

There are the surging teams and the underdogs. North Carolina looks very tough to beat these days. So does Kansas State. How about a Cinderella? Will we see another George Mason? If so, who will it be? George Mason? Your guess is as good as mine, I suppose.

Then there are other storylines, like the Big East. Will it get 11 teams in the Tournament? No conference has ever gotten nine teams in, but the Big East has 11 real contenders. Unfortunately for Big East teams, the gauntlet of a conference schedule could help them be tournament-ready–but it may well have worn teams out. My guess? A Big East team won’t win the national title. Pittsburgh and Notre Dame are legitimate possibilities, but I’m betting both will wear down at some point before the title game.

Regardless, even with how difficult Stanford makes it to enjoy the NCAA tournament, there is a lot to be had, even for Cardinal fans.

Dan Bohm has lost every March Madness pool he has ever entered. Every single one. To give him a pep talk, or to just send him a completed bracket to submit this year, e-mail him at bohmd “at” stanford.edu.