Published March 18, 2011

Wait, it’s not hockey?

Tonight the Boston University men’s basketball team is set to face off…um… tip off against powerhouse Kansas in the “second round”* of March Madness action.

If BU were to win, it would be the greatest tournament moment of all-time — the first 16-seed to vanquish a No. 1 seed in history.

All the team has to do is take a page out of fellow-Terrier Mike Eruzione’s book.

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With five national championships, 13 Final Fours and 40 tournament appearances, Kansas has a rich basketball history. Watch out for the Morris twins — 6-10 Markieff and 6-9 Marcus.

This year marks BU’s seventh tournament appearance and its first since 2002. Still, the team went 21-13 on the season, won their league and is the only Boston-area team to march in the Madness. The only senior on the team, John Holland, won America East player of the year honors.

The game is at 6:50 p.m. tonight in Tulsa, Okla.

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*- This year, in its infinite wisdom, the NCAA Tournament decided to add an additional round. Selecting 68 teams, four teams competed in two play-in games to start the tournament. That means the Round of 64, traditionally the first round, is now actually the second round.

Published March 18, 2011

Think you saw Zelda on the T? Ride the bus with Super Mario? Grab brunch with Mrs. Pac-Man?

It wasn’t just a dream. PAX East, a huge video game and gaming convention, invaded Boston for the second straight year last weekend. Thousands of gamers from all over the country streamed into Boston and to the Boston Convention Exhibition Center.

Radio Boston’s Anna Pinkert went to the convention and brought back this great slideshow.

Once a burgeoning industry in Massachusetts, the video game industry here has stumbled on hard times recently, as Radio Boston reported. The show also looked into the recent rise in female gamers.

Published March 18, 2011

State Transportation Secretary Jeffrey B. Mullan shocked commuters Wednesday when he revealed that authorities found corrosion among some heavy light fixtures in Big Dig tunnels and that at least one light fixture had crashed down from a tunnel ceiling onto the highway below. Turns out, Mullan’s boss, Gov. Deval Patrick, was pretty surprised too.

Mullan acknowledged yesterday that he should have told the public — and the governor — of the issues sooner. He only informed Patrick Tuesday, the day before making his findings public, after a five week investigation.

Derided as an excuse for public workers to hit the Irish pubs, Evacuation Day — St. Paddy’s Day — has been a bone of contention among the public for years. While city and state agencies were open for business yesterday for the first time in years, canceling the holiday may not have eased voters ire. State employees who worked yesterday will receive an extra paid day off within the next two months and many municipal employees raked in time-and-a-half.

On the other side of the coin, many believe that the “hack holiday” deserves to be celebrated. Herald columnist Peter Gelzinis argues that the history of the holiday can unite sections of the city that normally don’t interact.

Prepping for a possible presidential run, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich was in New Hampshire yesterday. WBUR’s David Boeri crossed the border for St. Paddy’s Day with Newt.

Without maestro James Levine at the helm, the Boston Symphony Orchestra still impressed critics at Carnegie Hall in New York last night.

What we’re following: Check wbur.org throughout the day to catch up on all the breaking international news from Japan to Libya. We’ll also follow problems in the operations department of Boston police, rising gas prices and public school students tracking their graduation progress. Radio Boston will speak with Phyllis Schlafly’s niece, Suzanne Venker, to talk about “The Flipside of Feminism.”