March Madness starts TODAY with some of the best games coming to Hartford!

There's a lot of excitement over the match-up between No. 5 seed Marquette's Marcus Howard and No. 12 seed Murray State's Ja Morant. I'm just sayin' that a No. 5 seed has beat a No. 12 seed 67% of the time.

Last year's winner, Villanova, also starts in Hartford. And Florida State will play the University of Vermont. Okay, Vermont may not win but they have a great mascot and they tell you why you should root for them. 

As is our custom, a comedian and a political commentator join us to share their bracket strategy. Since there are 9.2 quintillion possible outcomes for a bracket -- that's 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 -- we think their chances are pretty good. 

This hour, we talk mascots, vasectomy rates during March Madness, Wofford, the XL Center's deterioration and, hopefully, something about basketball.

*It's probably our 10th one of these. Other options include its being our ninth one of these. Also our eighth one of these. But probably it's our 10th.

GUESTS: 

• Julia Pistell - Writer, podcaster, and comedian.; she's the host of the podcast Literary Disco and Managing Director at Sea Tea Improv (@echochorus)
• Bill Curry - Political commentator, two-time Democratic nominee for Governor of Connecticut, and former White House advisor in the Clinton Administration (@BillCurryct)
• Nayef Samrat - President of Wofford College (@WoffordTerriers)
• Frankie Graziano - Reporter at Connecticut Public Radio (@FrankieGrazie6)

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

Colin McEnroe and Chion Wolf contributed to this show.

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.