And away we go, episode 1,282 of the Al-Galdi podcast. It is Tuesday, March 17th, 2026. It is day one of the

2006 NCAA tournament in men's college basketball. And the very first game of this tournament

involves two of the four teams from the Mid-Atlantic region in the tournament, number 16-seeded

Howard versus number 16-seeded

UMBC at UD Arena in Dayton, Ohio on Tuesday evening at 640 in a first four game.

The other two teams of the region in this tournament are number three-seeded Virginia and number

11-seeded VCU.

But let's make this clear, just one team of the Washington, D.C. area is in this tournament.

And that team is Howard. UVAVCU and UMBC are part of the Mid-Atlantic region, but are not

part of the D.C. area. I have a lot of respect for what Howard head coach, Kenneth Flakey,

is done in leading the team to three Miak tournament championships, and thus three NCAA tournament appearances over the last four seasons.

And I now like Coach Blakeney even more because he on Sunday followed me on X.

But Howard being the only D.C. area team in an NCAA tournament is shameful for Maryland and Georgetown.

These programs have great histories and a lot of money and are in a basketball-rich area

in terms of recruiting, and yet Maryland is not in the NCAA tournament for a third time

in five seasons. Georgetown is not in the NCAA tournament for the ninth time over the last 10 seasons,

for which there has been an NCAA tournament.

No NCAA tournament in 2020 due to COVID, but the Hoyas only NCAA tournament

appearance during this span was due to them miraculously winning the

2021 Biggie's tournament as the number eight seed, and then Georgetown as a number 12 seed,

lost to number five seed in Colorado by 23 points, 9673 at Butler's Hinkle Fieldhouse in the

first round of the 2021 NCAA tournament. You know, this Sunday

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