The NCAA tournament is upon us, and a lot of us at DCist are excited. Our resident college hoops fans had a chat the other day about Maryland and Virginia not making the tourney, plus a bit about local hoops in general.

It’s that time of year again, so hurry and get those picks in for the annual DCist NCAA Readers-Staff March Madness pool. Good luck!

The NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament is over, and we’re ready to announce the winners of the Sixth Annual DCist Readers-Staff March Madness Pool.

It’s tournament time! And you know what that means—that’s right, it’s your chance to challenge your DCist writers, editors and photographers in the annual reader-staff pool.

Last night’s NCAA men’s basketball national championship game was, well, downright terrible – not that it mattered to Erin Murphy. Her bracket – which impressively foresaw Butler’s Cinderella run to the Final Four, as well as the Huskies’ triumph – came out on top of DCist’s fifth annual Reader-Staff Pool.

Let’s be honest: unless you’re Rachel LaBruyere or hail from Richmond, the men’s NCAA Tournament has lost a bit of its luster for D.C. homers. Georgetown and George Mason failed to advance past the tournament’s first weekend, and the tournament itself has packed up from the Verizon Center, taking it’s insane finishes and Kemba Walker’s acrobatics along with it. But though local interest in the men’s tournament is waning, the women’s competition actually has some regional juice, featuring a matchup between long-dormant rivals Georgetown and Maryland.

Heading to the Verizon Center for tomorrow’s all-day NCAA Tournament binge? Well, don’t worry about getting home if you’re using Metro to get to the arena. WMATA announced this morning that rail service will be extended until 1 a.m. tomorrow night, and additional trains will be deployed after the day’s first, third and fourth games to ease congestion.

It’s tournament time! And you know what that means — that’s right, it’s your chance to challenge your DCist writers, editors and photographers in the annual reader-staff pool. This year, your editor-in-chief will hope to improve on last year’s 47th place finish, though I’m sure stiff competition will be provided by the lot of you.

As tonight’s men’s national championship game approaches, it’s fair to look back and conclude that D.C. lost our story lines from March Madness 2010 too quickly. Georgetown’s first round ouster to Ohio sent brackets and survivor pools into a tailspin. Maryland’s Greivis Vasquez — recently named the top point guard in college basketball this season — heroically brought his team back from the brink against Michigan State in the second round, only for Terrapin…

As the first game of the day gets rolling, how’s your bracket doing? Mine’s doing okay, but it’s not even within spitting range of the entry submitted by the enigmatic Dr. Terp, who leads both DCist staff-reader pools with an unbelievable 30 (!) correct picks in the first round. The esteemed Doc only missed on Georgetown and Marquette during the first two days. Since his/her Ph.D. is obviously in basketball prognostication, I’d like to dig…