If you like basketball, this truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

Basketball fans watching on TV probably would prefer not just a previous-channel button on their TVs, but several of them, to go among CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV on the NCAA men’s basketball tournament as well as the channels carrying the state high school boys basketball tournament. The tournaments are best watched at a sports bar, where you can watch multiple TVs and thus follow all five games while enjoying your bacon cheeseburger and your favorite deep-fried carbohydrate product.

This time of year gives me flashbacks to one of the most memorable moments of my life, my high school’s trip to state my junior year, a point where it appeared to me as though all was right with the world. (More on that Tuesday.)

We owned the newspaper in Cuba City for a year and half, which coincided nicely with one of the Cubans’ several state basketball championships. (That came to mind because Lomira, which ended Ripon’s girls season Thursday, last went to state in 1993, where the Lions lost to … Cuba City.)

For those who wonder why a city 1,000 miles from Cuba is called Cuba City: The railroad station that became Cuba City originally was called Western, then was changed to Yuba. That lasted until someone pointed out that there was another Yuba not far from there. So the word “City” was added, and that lasted until someone pointed out the existence of Yuba City, Calif. So William H. Goldthorpe, postmaster, state representative, local band leader and 64-year-owner of what became the Tri-County Press (which is the merger of five newspapers in Cuba City, Hazel Green and Benton — we purchased the newspaper from his son), changed the name from Yuba City to Cuba City.

Cuban fans had a difficult decision to make Thursday thanks to questionable WIAA scheduling: Do they go to Madison for the state semifinal against Oshkosh Lourdes at 6:35 p.m., or do they go to Waunakee for the girls sectional semifinal against Deerfield at 7 p.m.? (The WIAA used to shift start times of pre-state games in cases of conflicts between a high school’s boys and girls games, but apparently can’t be bothered to do that anymore.)

Fortunately, the Cubans prevailed in each — the boys hammered Lourdes 72–27 while the girls beat Deerfield 58–48. So if you’re a true Cuban fan who is not staying in Madison, after gassing up the minivan in Cuba City or Dickeyville, you’ll be heading east on U.S. 151 back to Madison to see the Cubans play Whitefish Bay Dominican around 12:45 p.m. to see the Cubans try to complete an undefeated season and give Coach Jerry Petitgoue, the winningest high school  basketball coach in the state of Wisconsin, his fourth state title.

(The Cubans also may have some kind of record when the Division 4 final tips off; Dominican will be the Cubans’ third consecutive private school opponent, after their sectional final win over Onalaska Luther Saturday and their state semifinal win over Lourdes.)

After the Cubans get their trophy (gold if they win, silver if they lose), Cuban fans will either celebrate their title or reflect on what a great season it was, but not for long, since they’ll have to jump back into the vans and head northward to Interstate 90 and the girls sectional final against undefeated Neillsville at Mauston High School at 7 p.m., while listening to the Badgers take on Vanderbilt in their NCAA game in Albuquerque at 5:10 p.m.

This scrambling around is hard on your schedule, but memorable after the fact. (One March Saturday in the late 1980s featured, in chronological order, (1) the state boys gymnastics championships in Madison in the morning, followed by (2) a girls sectional final in Reedsburg in the afternoon followed by (3) a boys regional final back in Madison that evening. Six years, three jobs and one marriage later, we topped that by, in chronological order, (1) my heading to Darlington for a girls gymnastics sectional, then (2A) to Monroe for a boys regional final while (2B) Jannan went to a different regional final, then (3) we met at Sauk Prairie for the girls sectional final.)

The Wisconsin State Journal’s Barry Adams senses a whiff of nostalgia in Madison’s unusually warm air, given that the state tournaments may be moving from Madison to Green Bay as early as next season:

You could win a state high school championship in any city in Wisconsin. All you need is the right facility. …

But you can’t replicate in Green Bay what took place Thursday with the WIAA boys state basketball tournament in Madison.

Just ask Maria O’Shaughnessy, 16, and Lacey McNaughton, 17, the student managers for the Drummond boys basketball team.

Prior to their team getting clobbered by Racine Lutheran, the juniors, who endured a five hour bus drive Wednesday to get here, feasted on french fries and chicken fingers in the concourse of the Kohl Center and talked about trips to East Towne Mall, Prime Quarter Steak House and Olive Garden. Friday, they plan to explore State Street in what is their first trip to the Capitol city since a sixth grade field trip.

“This is a big deal for us,” said Lacey.

“It would still be pretty amazing (in Green Bay) but nothing compares to Madison,” added Maria.

We won’t know until likely next month if the boys’ and girls’ tournaments are headed to the Resch Center in Green Bay but the atmosphere surrounding Thursday’s action was stunning, punctuated by unseasonable 80-degree weather.

Badgers recruit Sam Dekker can score 35 points in any gym, including the Resch Center, but the sparkling arena across the street from Lambeau Field simply can’t provide the options available in the state’s second largest city.

This is where food carts on State Street Mall, three blocks from the Kohl Center, sold an international selection of lunch fare including Indonesian, Jamaican and Latin soul food. Nearby, Michael Arms beautifully sang for tips while musicians up the street played drums and guitar. The outdoor beer garden at State Street Brats was full, and cafes had their street seating in full operation. There’s the Memorial Union, Bascom Hill and dozens of shops along State Street, which of course terminates at the state Capitol. All of this within a short walk from center court. …

But unless scheduling conflicts can be worked out at the Kohl Center, basketball fans next year will be chowing down hamburgers at Kroll’s West instead of the Nitty Gritty, learning about Lambeau and not the state Capitol and sipping microbrews at Titletown Brewing Co. rather than at the Great Dane or Capitol Tap Haus.

Tourism officials in Madison estimate the move would cost hotels, bars, restaurants and other businesses about $9 million in lost revenue. But it also would be a loss for state basketball players and fans.

Since I avoid directly discussing politics in this space on Fridays, I will refrain from suggesting that visiting the shrine of pro football is a more productive use of time than going to the nest of dysfunction and overtaxing, overregulating, overcontrolling, politics-as-a-profession-which-the-Founding-Fathers-never-intended state Capitol. The Cuban sprint from state to sectional would be at least more difficult, and perhaps impossible, with state in Green Bay because of its distance. As I’ve pointed out, while neither Madison nor Green Bay are close to the geographic center of the state, Madison is closer to the population center of the state than Green Bay. State trips to Green Bay therefore will be longer trips in an era of, if Barack Obama gets reelected, gas prices heading toward the cost of a two-game-session state tournament ticket. (That’s $10, by the way.)

There also remains the possibility that the state basketball tournaments won’t be on free TV after leaving Madison. The originating station for the network is in Madison, not Green Bay, and with two exceptions has carried state every year since 1970. Wisconsin is the only state where the complete state tournaments — not just the title games but the semifinals too, from Thursday afternoon to Saturday night — can be viewed on free TV.

Broadcasters rent, not own, equipment for events such as state tournaments, since they only happen a few times a year. But none of the four stations that have originated the state tournaments for nearly 40 years are in Green Bay. Quincy Newspapers, the owner of the stations, may see state as either too much hassle or not enough profit if they’re not in one of their own markets. Would Journal Communications, which owns WGBA-TV in Green Bay and WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee and operates WACY-TV in Green Bay, or Gray Television, which owns stations in Madison, Eau Claire and Wausau and is managing WBAY-TV in Green Bay because WBAY’s owner is, uh, bankrupt, pick up state? Call me skeptical. (No CBS station will carry state since CBS has the NCAA basketball tournament.)

Fox Sports Wisconsin, which carries other state tournaments, certainly could carry state basketball. But Fox Sports Wisconsin carries only the state football championship games live; all of their other high school state events are on tape-delay or online. (Online TV, the quality of which is dependent on your Internet connection and the speed of your computer, is a not-quite-here-yet technology.) And if Fox Sports carries state basketball, it can’t carry postseason college hockey, since unlike many markets, Wisconsin doesn’t have a second Fox Sports channel. And of course if you don’t have the right cable or satellite package, you can’t see Fox Sports at all.

Change is inevitable, but positive change is not. That may be the theme of this and next weekend in Madison.

Because I can laugh at myself, I present my two brackets for the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament, which started Tuesday but gets going for real later this morning.

Which I guess makes me, according to the New York Times …

You combine favorites with underdogs that you carefully selected based upon their strength of schedule, assist-to-turnover ratio and the expert opinions of the other message board posters at UnhealthyHoopsObsession.com. Your bracket is the product of 36 hours of painstaking research; you took breaks only to rank players 300 through 770 for your nine fantasy baseball drafts. …

Data are your friends, perhaps your only friends. You understand that the purpose of a tournament pool is not to add zest to your basketball-watching experience or promote water cooler bonding, but to gain the 0.07 percent advantage over your co-workers that comes from turning a small diversion into a life-consuming chore. You believe co-workers admire your ability to steer all break-room conversations away from movies, family and life’s pleasures and toward Baylor’s R.P.I. rating. All the effort was worthwhile, however, when you finished tied for sixth in the pool in 2003, winning $56 and gloating for two days before beginning your research for the next year’s pool.

(The 36-hour estimate is about 18 times too long, and only that long because of my slow laptop. I don’t play fantasy sports other than imagining myself catching touchdown passes for the Packers or replacing Prince Fielder at first place for the Brewers.)

The first bracket, for a contest involving alumni of the University of Wisconsin Marching Band, was picked based on some concepts listed earlier this week from Luke Winn of Sports Illustrated.

This bracket is largely based on a composite of four national rankings Winn listed, with the higher ranked team winning. There are six first-round upsets in this one — #9 Connecticut over #8 Iowa State, #11 Colorado over #6 UNLV in the South, #13 Davidson over #4 Louisville and #10 Virginia over #7 Florida in the West, #11 Texas over #6 Cincinnati in the East, and #11 North Carolina State over #6 San Diego State in the Midwest. And I wouldn’t call it exactly daring to pick three number one seeds and a number two to reach the Final Four.

If a theme other than rankings dominates in this bracket, it’s the importance of defense. This bracket tends to discount the highly ranked teams not known for their defense, such as Missouri and Duke. Perhaps that explains why Wisconsin, which  has been unusually inconsistent this year, and yet leads the country in points allowed per game, goes to the Sweet 16.

The next bracket is for a contest I’ve been in since I worked at Marian University:

This bracket was spurred by the statistics of offensive and defensive efficiency — points scored and given up, respectively, per possession. The efficiency statistic measures production taking out the effects of tempo. Basketball fans know that the faster tempo a team plays, the more points it will score and give up (exhibit A: Grinnell, perennially first in the Midwest Conference in offense and last in defense), and the reverse applies for such slow-paced teams as, well, nearly everyone in the Big Ten, particularly Wisconsin.

I simply matched the 60 teams (not including the eight First Four teams that played Tuesday and Wednesday) by subtracting their defensive efficiency from their offensive efficiency, and whichever team had the higher number was that game’s winner. Some would suggest defensive efficiency is more important than offensive efficiency, but I decided to weigh each the same.

This one has more fun upsets. If my formula is right, prepare to meet the Lehigh Mountain Hawks, which I have not just pulling off the fifth 15-vs.-2 upset in NCAA history, but reaching the South Regional final. I also have 14th-seed South Dakota State beating third-seed Baylor and then sixth-seed UNLV, 14th-seed Belmont beating third-seed Georgetown (and like Lehigh getting all the way to the regional final), another Davidson upset of Louisville, 12th seed Harvard beating fifth-seed Vanderbilt, plus 13th seed Ohio upsetting fifth-seed this weekend.

It is interesting to note that both approaches came up with three of the same Final Four teams — Kentucky, North Carolina and Ohio State — and the same champion, Kentucky. The Old Farts bracket has Kentucky beating Michigan State and North Carolina beating Ohio State, and then the Wildcats triumphing over the Tar Heels. The Efficiency bracket has Kentucky beating Missouri and Ohio State beating North Carolina, and then the Wildcats beating the Buckeyes.

It is also interesting to note that using either system with no rooting interest, Wisconsin beats Montana and then either Vanderbilt or Harvard to get to the Sweet 16. That demonstrates the value of defense, boring though it may be to watch.