Live Blog: March Madness Vegas Style

8:58am - It's 8:58am local time here at the Hard Rock Hotel and the temporary sports book arrangement in "The Joint" (the hotel's normal concert venu) is packed with fans sporting every piece of college gear imagineable. Highlights from the pre-tipoff portion of the morning include a trio of Duke fans walking down the line waiting to get in and being shunned as if they were wearing Taliban State t-shirts - they are the clear social pariahs of the day. The Hard Rock setup is terrific this year, with 5 projection screens, all sorts of basketball themed arcade games, pool tables and traditional casino table games and a $35 all you can eat, all you can drink special for the entire day - I wish we had a line on the over / under for how many people will be carried out by security after passing out on their table from a combination of 3 hours of sleep, 12 hours of basketball, 4 plates of chicken wings and a dozen Bud Lights ... I'd be taking the over in a heartbeat. For the early morning session I like Kansas to cover against Portland State and I like Xavier big over Georgia .. who do you guys have? I'll be updating every couple of hours and trying to pass on some of the Vegas excitement to those of you stuck at work, so keep checking in.

11:44am - First round games just finished ... the last minute of the Xavier and Georgia game was complete pandemonium as everyone with Butler -8.5 was screaming for Georgia to foul and let Xavier cover from the free throw line and everyone with Georgia was dying for a desperation 3 to fall. Xavier covered, half the crowd celebrated ... first great "Vegas" moment of the weekend and it's not even noon yet. We also have our first random former college / NBA player sighting as Scott Padgett is in the house putting a few bets down and watching his Wildcats (most surprisingly ... he's sitting with some Louisville fans!). Both my choices for the early session went well, Kansas and Xavier both covered. I'm liking UNLV as a slight dog to Kent State and Butler to cover -5 right now, lets see how that goes.