NCAA Men’s Basketball First and Second Round Regional Tournament, Verizon Center, Washington, D.C., Thursday and Saturday.

You’ll have a harder time finding tickets for Thursday’s four games (two sessions of two games each, one beginning at 12:20 p.m. and the other at 7:10 p.m.), but it should be a lot easier for Saturday’s one session of two games, beginning at 2:10 p.m., since half the teams will have been eliminated by then. There is, in my view, an embarrassment of riches in this regional portion of March Madness. Although there is no “No. 1 Seed,” there is 2^nd-Seed Duke representing the ACC, always a good show whether you love or hate them, and always-popular West Virginia, the Big East entry. Then there is Purdue, a dark horse out of the Big 10, and Baylor, which made an eye-popping run at the start of the Big 12 season. Georgia won the SEC tournament, and Arizona, of the Pac 10, is always a first rate act. Xavier of the Atlantic 10 comes in as a 3^rd Seed.