College hoops fans had an exciting weekend as ‘Selection Sunday’ filled in the remaining slots of the 2009 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Bracket. I don’t know about you, but I am excited to enter my fav picks and participate in the fun banter and bragging rights amongst my fellow friends and colleagues.

March Madness and fan culture expert Alan Jay Zaremba knows this all too well as he spent the first weekend of March Madness 2007 in Las Vegas, hopping from sports book to sports book to watch as many of the basketball games as possible, place some bets, and attempt to make sense of the chaos around him. The stories he heard, games he watched and characters he met that weekend populate The Madness of March, which is new this month from the University of Nebraska Press.

Follow Alan as he blogs LIVE from Las Vegas for the 2009 March Madness NCAA Tournament. He will also be at The Gambler's Book bookstore to read from his book and sign copies- more details can be found on his web site.

For another great basketball read, see Rick Telander’s Heaven is a Playground, highlighted in today’s Shelf Awareness.