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Basketball fans in Central New York must know how spoiled they are here. Not just with that no. 2-ranked college team on the SU hill, who keeps picking up big wins - three of them in six days, Georgetown, Connecticut and Louisville. Not bad there.

But also the high school part, too. We're about to start five very rousing Section III tournaments, with big-name teams, star players, fantastic games and potential match-ups. All of this leads to a memorable weekend on March 3-4 at the Carrier Dome - SU vs. Louisville on Saturday, the sectional finals on Sunday.

Who will make those trips to the Dome? The answer won't be found in the following paragraphs, though we can certainly set up the storylines.

Class D split, but the right way, with one megapower, state no. 1-ranked Sackets Harbor, leading the D-1 side and another megapower, state no. 3-ranked (and defending state champ) New York Mills, on the other side.

Sackets was the only Section III side to go a perfect 18-0 in the regular season, and no win was bigger than the 68-63 home conquest of Mills on Jan. 21. With five seniors starters, including the Allen and D'Allesandro brothers, Jeff Robbins' Patriots should have no problem until the D-2 final, when someone like no. 2 seed Faith Heritage (who went 12-6 against C teams all year) or Rome Catholic could provide a headache.

On the other side, Mills owns the no. 1 seed in D-1. The presence of big Matt Welch in the middle is too much for most of coach Mike Adey's foes, but Oriskany, the no. 3 seed, just came within an inch of beating the Marauders at home early this month as Mills welcomed back Jake Kehrli from a knee injury that sidelined him most of the season.

Bob Reid's Redskins, who will need to get past Poland and possibly no. 3 seed McGraw, would like nothing more than to get to the D-1 final, face the Marauders again and deny the possible Mills-Sackets rematch in the Dome everyone else is dreaming about. In the end, though, does the big-game experience of Mills prove too much for everyone, Sackets included?

Unlike years past, Class C split. Oh my goodness, does this create a fun sectional tournament. There's 15 teams, and maybe 10 of them could win this if they get hot. Really.

At the top is Cooperstown, who at 17-1 have positively flattened most of its opposition (its only loss was to Albany, a Class AA side). Bent on redemption after losing last year's C-1 final, the Redskins' "reward" for that no. 1 seed is a possible quaterfinal against...Tully, who starts out at 14-4, plays lights-out defense at times and is perfectly capable of a deep playoff run.

Put simply, the top half of the C bracket is brutal. Not only is there Coop and Tully, there is Institute of Technology Central (last year's C-1 champs) as the no. 4 seed and Syracuse Academy of Science (last year's state finalists) as the no. 5 seed. Thus, we could see the fierce ITC-SAS rivalry renewed in the quarterfinals, the Eagles having won both regular-season encounters after the Atoms won all three in 2010-11.

There's not much let-up on the other end, either. The fabulous Carson Murphy, averaging nearly 25 points a game, has led Mohawk to the no. 2 seed. Get past Watertown IHC, and the Mohicans could have a quarterfinal with sneaky Fabius-Pompey.

As the TV commercials, go, but wait, there's more. How about 14-4 Pulaski against West Canada in a first-round game? Plus there's 16-2 Beaver River as the no. 3 seed, and all the Beavers have done is win 15 in a row. Bottom line - whoever gets to the Dome i Class C will have really, really earned it.

Contrast that with Class B, where it's top-heavy. Bishop Ludden is a formidable top seed, only now realizing how good sophomores Dan Kaigler and Ben Hackett can be, This is, perhaps, Pat Donnelly's best team in a decade.

Still, four other OHSL Liberty teams are in the top half of the B bracket. Surprising Cazenovia, with the no. 4 seed, will try and knock out Westhill in the first round, and look out even for Marcellus, the no. 11 seed, who started 0-5, but has played well once everyone got healthy.

There's a lot of skepticism about no. 2 seed South Jefferson because of the Frontier League level of competition, but the 16-2 Spartans did beat Dustin Pond and Watertown in the A/B Frontier crossover last Friday, so don't take them too lightly.

Still, the consensus is that no. 3 seed Bishop Grimes is the best bet to get to the finals, with guards Gai Ater and Casey Evans running the show. Don't be too shocked, though, if no. 6 seed Skaneateles disrupts a lot of plans, now that Jimmy Atkinson is healthy and joining Brandon Barron.

It's so simple in Class A - Jamesville-DeWitt, and whomever will be their next victim, right? Dajuan Coleman (newly minted McDonald's All-American) and Tyler Cavanaugh are maybe the two best players in the area, on the same team. Most nights, it's not a fair fight.

In the quest for a fifth straight state title, Bob McKenney's Red Rams won't get any resistance until the semifinals, where eitherNew Hartford or Utica-Notre Dame will wait. Of those two, McKenney fears the Spartans more because they could hit a lot of 3s to negate J-D's inside advantage.

Then there's Cortland, sitting as the no. 3 seed. Everyone favors the experienced 16-2 Purple Tigers in a potential semifinal with no. 2 seed Indian River because the Warriors hasn't faced anything close to what Cortalnd has dealt with.

Namely, that's J-D, a team the Purple Tigers pushed hard twice. Anything other than a third encounter between J-D and Cortland would be a major shock, though the Purple Tigers can't overlook an East Syracuse-Minoa side with all kinds of fine athletes and good offensive balance.

FInally, there's Class AA. So often in the last six or seven years, the story has revolved around Henninger or Utica Proctor, and it does so again with the Raiders as the top seed and the defending champion Black Knights as the no. 2 seed.

Of the two, Henninger is hotter, having won 10 straight, including an OT win over Proctor in late January. Having experienced big-time players like Kavon Delee, Tevin Chisholm and Marquies Young helps Erik Saroney's cause a lot, and so does a playoff bracket that should not tax them until the semifinals since it's West Genesee or overachieving Rome Free Academy that's the first foe.

But Proctor, who somehow went 16-2 after replacing five starters from last year's sectional finalists, is bent on taking that final step to the top, with Maurice Mills, Chris Simmons and in-your-face defensive pressure from whoever is on the court. Like Henninger, the Raiders should not sweat too much in the early going, with CBA or Corcoran the quarterfinal opponent.

That brings us to the challengers. That will be one good quarterfinal on Friday between no. 5 seed Cicero-North Syracuse and no. 4 seed Oswego. The upstart Bucs won at C-NS early in January, but the Northstars are red-hot right now, so the game appears a total toss-up. Either one of them could give Proctor a real problem in the semifinals.

Should Nottingham get past Dustin Pond and Watertown in the first round, that sets up quite a quarterfinal between the Bulldogs and no. 3 seed Fayetteville-Manlius.There's no hiding the excitement of the young Hornets, who start a sophomore (leading scorer John Schurman) and two freshmen (point guard Jake Wittig and forward T.J. Wheatley) and want to run all night.

Back on Jan. 20, F-M clocked Nottingham 65-44, but don't let that fool you. The Bulldogs, led by Tyquon Robin and Kamron Davis, are capable, having beaten Oswego and C-NS and put good scares into Henninger and Proctor, too. Just like in the other bracket, Henninger knows that a semifinal against the Hornets or Bulldogs will be difficult.

Come Tuesday night, 22 playoff games tip off. There's nothing like them, the sense that every game ends someone's season, while perpetuating the dreams of the winners. Enjoy it all....