Prepare for 2009 March Madness!

Once again that time of year has descended upon the college campuses and states all around the country, March Madness. Die hard fans are preparing all around the US for the NCAA College Basketball tournament. In the 2009 edition, there were 3 conferences with a total of 7 teams sent to the tournament this year: ACC, Big Ten and Big East; displaying the power of these particular conferences. The brackets revealed three #1 seeds this year all from the Big East: Louisville, UCONN and Pittsburgh. The fourth seed will come from the ACC, a team that bounced back and forth at the #1 spot all season long, North Carolina's Tarheels. Here's a quick look at each of the four regions and their top teams.

The Midwest's #1 seed, Louisville finished off their season in impressive style. The Cardinals won the Big East title and then the Big East Tournament as well, defeating a Syracuse team that had showed a ton of heart playing through a total of 7 OT's in 2 games, and logging almost 4 hours playing time on the court by same players through the tourney. Also joining Louisville in their bracket will be the #2 seed Michigan State team who many thought might grab a #1 seed themselves. Fellow Big East team West Virginia grabbed the 6 seed in Lville's bracket. Other top teams include last year's champs the Kansas Jayhawks with a #3 seed, #4 Wake Forest (who was #1 in the country this past season) #5 Utah, and #7 BC.

The West will see the University of Connecticut Huskies as its top seed, despite the team failing to win the Big East and losing in the conference tournament to a lower seeded Syracuse team. The Huskies will have potential spoiler teams in #10 seed Maryland, #3 Missouri, #4 Washington Huskies and at the other end of the brack, the #2 Memphis Tigers, last year's NCAA Championship runner-ups.

In the East, Pittsburgh emerged as the #1 seed. The Panthers failed to capture the Big East tournament after losing to West Virginia this past season, but saw 2 impressive victories over UCONN, the top team in the nation several times. Joining Pitt will be the recent ACC Tourney champs, the Duke Blue Devils who scored a #2 seed. Villanova takes the #3 seed, with Xavier at #4, Florida State at #5 and UCLA at #6.

#1 out in the South, The North Carolina Tarheels were considered one of the top teams at the start of the season and reclaimed that spot again at season's end. A disappointing ACC tournament saw Florida State upset them, but they were without the services of player Ty Law. Law claims he'll be ready when Tournament action starts. Also in the South will be another former #1 this past season in the 2 seed Oklahoma with star powerhouse player, Blake Griffin. The 3 seed will be those pesky Syracuse Orangemen, with Gonzaga at #4. The South may be the region to keep an eye on with all sorts of compelling possible matchups and upsets. Clemson, Michigan State, Butler, Arizona State and Illinois are also in the bracket, hungry to advance to the Final 4.

Play will begin Thursday afternoon with people all over the world betting and filling out their ESPN or office pool brackets frantically over the next several days. Let the madness begin!

View and print out complete 2009 NCAA Tournament brackets here.