For sports fans, the time from the Super Bowl to Opening Day is one of the bleakest periods of the year. Football is over, baseball hasn’t started yet, hockey is for Canadians. We could watch the cobbled-together pro basketball season, but the lockout really turned us off.
Luckily there’s always the brilliance of the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament, like a beacon lighting the way towards spring. Whether you’re putting together a bracket or four, or just reveling in the parity and excitement of the tourney, here are 30 great Twitter feeds to follow for March Madness.
- NCAA March Madness: That blue check mark at the top means this is the official Twitter feed of the Division I Men’s hoops tourney.
- ESPNHomeCourt: You know the name; it’s the worldwide leader in sports. Extra points if you get your tweet read on air.
- CBSSports.com: CBS is your home for the 2012 NCAA tournament, and this is the official Twitter feed.
- HoopsonCBS: And just in case you can’t figure out when the next game is, HoopsonCBS is like a TV guide for the 21st century.
- Dick Vitale: Listening to Dickie V. in March is like hiding colored eggs in April; nobody really knows why we do it, but it just doesn’t seem right not to.
- Andy Katz: Katz is a respected senior writer at ESPN who covers college basketball and tweets his “Weekly Watch” every Sunday that keeps you apprised of big games over the next seven days.
- Pat Forde: This ESPN writer’s name frequently pops up in re-tweets on all the big college hoops feeds, and the reason is because he knows his stuff.
- Greg Anthony: This sports anchor joins Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith in the studio covering games for CBS. Catch tweeting during commercial breaks.
- Seth Davis: Eighty thousand hoops fans get their news and analysis from this college bball reporter for Sports Illustrated.
- Michael DeCourcy: DeCourcy specializes in news from the Big Ten and also covers hoops for SportingNews.
- Pete Thamel: As the college sports guy for The New York Times, Thamel knows a lot about football, which you can ignore, and basketball, which you can soak up.
- Matt Norlander: The founder of College Hoops Journal, Norlander tweets cool articles and straightforward takes on college basketball stories and tournament developments.
- Fran Fraschilla: With a resume that includes head coaching gigs at St. John’s and UNM, this ESPN college hoops analyst knows his roundball.
- Eye on College BBall: This is the feed for CBSSports.com’s blog of the same name. It’s got featured blog posts from some of the sports best-known commentators.
- Jeff Eisenberg: Jeff covers college basketball around the country for The Dagger, a blog on college sports site Rivals.com.
- Morey Schapira: Morey keeps an eye on the college basketball news and posts a tweet-load of articles from sports publications.
- Shawn Siegel: This sportswriter and his friends at Collegehoops.net tweet game breakdowns and their informed opinions on rankings, RPIs, and more.
- Midwest Sports Fans: This is the feed for another great sports blog whose hoops writers put together a pretty mean bracket.
- Jerry Palm: In addition to writing for CBSSports, Jerry Palm operates CollegeRPI.com and CollegeBCS.com. Somehow he also finds time to tweet his expert takes on college hoops.
- Jeff Borzello: Jeff is a college hoops writer for CBSSports, but we prefer to think of him as the man behind high school and college bball blog Busting the Bracket.
- The Hoops Report: The folks at THR tweet news and bracketology-speak around the clock. You can’t go wrong giving them a follow.
- NCAA Basketball News: You may not have heard of sports blog Lockerpulse, but the site’s feed hosts a steady stream of bracketology, news, and game wrap-ups.
- John Calipari: The only college coach to ever lead three different schools to the top seed, Calipari is leading Kentucky back to the big dance and tweeting along the way.
- Tom Crean: Indiana has returned to the tourney for the first time since 2008. Follow Coach Crean as he tries to keep his team rolling to the Final Four.
- Bill Self: Kansas won it all in 2008, but the regional finals game is the farthest they’ve gone since. This year the man himself looks to take them all the way to New Orleans.
- Scott Drew: Baylor is looking strong thus far and Coach Drew hopes to lead the Bears to their first-ever national championship.
- Chris Mack: Xavier has had an interesting year, but Coach Mack has handled it well, well enough that their tourney hopes are still alive.
- Quincy Acy: This 6-foot-7 senior from Baylor put the team on his shoulders on their run to March Madness. This kid’s going to go far, so follow him.
- Bradley Beal: Beal has the Gators in the Sweet Sixteen right now. No doubt he’ll be tweeting all the way through the team’s post-season run.
- Tyrel Reed: With fellow baller Thomas Robinson, Reed has the Jayhawks in perfect position to make a run at the Final Four.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, an official Google News site that generates millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, and Fox Sports
A Fulbright scholar and MBA, Banks has appeared on live radio shows all across the world. The President of the United States follows him on Twitter (@Paul_M_BanksTSB) You should too.