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Exactly 63 girls basketball teams start to set out on the Section III playoff journey Tuesday with first-round games on Tuesday. By week's end, they'll be down to 28, all of them dreaming of going to the Carrier Dome on the first Friday of March.

Ah yes, the Dome aspect. Both on the girls and boys sides, the allure of going to Central New York's most famous sports facility adds an extra degree of excitement because, with rare exceptions, this is the only time they'll ever get to play on that grand stage.

Certainly one of those rare exceptions dominates the Class AA conversation. For Breanna Stewart and Cicero-North Syracuse, the tally is three consecutive sectional titles and the 2011 state public crown, and everyone is all but conceding the sectional part of it - maybe even the state part, too.

And why not? Stewart is a McDonald's All-American and the list of honors she has racked up otherwise would cover this entire blog. Safe to say, anything other than a Northstars conquest would be the surprise of the millennium, given how they've dominated every local foe.

In a way, it's too bad, because the fine season of no. 2 seed Fayetteville-Manlius and the turnaround engineered by first-year coach at West Genesee are both worth celebrating, and CBA is newly confident after knocking off unbeaten Jamesville-DeWitt. All fans, though, ought to get one more chance to see Stewart as a local hero before she dons those UConn colors.

Just eight teams made it to the Class A party. Even though it saw its dream of an unbeaten season snuffed out, J-D, as the top seed, still is a solid favorite. Most night, the Red Rams' defense stifles all other hopes, and the only way they don't reach the finals is if Carthage, the no. 4 seed, continues to see Zakiya Saunders tear it up.

On the other side, New Hartford holds the no. 2 seed. The Spartans, led by Ashley Chanatry, love to push it and put up points, which means trouble for Mexico in the quarterifnals. Cortland, as the no. 3 seed, features the best player in the class in Maggie Brown (more than 25 points a game), but Brown needs some help if the Purple Tigers want a deep run -or even to get past East Syracuse-Minoa.

Which brings us to Class B. No other tournament bracket was as full of intrigue and excitement, with the presence of three teams in the state top 10, two of them (Westhill and South Jefferson) unbeaten, another (Utica-Notre Dame) with just one loss, not to mention Bishop Ludden, Bishop Grimes, Holland Patent, Jordan-Elbridge...you get the picture.

Ah, but 17 teams qualified. Thus, a split bracket, and all the favorites went to B-1, making the whole thing rather lopsided.

Westhill caught the break of the top seed, meaning it doesn't have to beat both South Jefferson and Utica-Notre Dame - though Sam Pebbles, Anna Ross and friends might have to beat Ludden a third time in a potential semifinal. The possible intrigue of a Jugglers-Spartans superpower semifinal on the other side (the ferocious SJ defense against Emily Durr) is not a given, since UND has to deal with Grimes, who can make a whole lot of 3-pointers in a hurry.

By contrast, the B-2 top seed is that noted power, Sherburne-Earlville, about as unknown a 14-4 team as there can be. All eyes are on the 4-5 quarterfinal, where J-E's Molly Hourigan may return from a strained knee to face a Sknaeateles team that just beat the Hourigan-less Lakers last Friday. At their best, Hannibal, the no. 3 seed, can emerge from the other half, where no. 2 seed Adirondack resides.

Class C also split, and might also be a bit lopsided. .Weedsport, the no. 1 seed in C-2, ran the regular-season table, paced by the mighty LaForce sisters, and no two wins were bigger than the sweep of defending champion Fabius-Pompey, which helped push the Falcons down to the no. 3 seed, behind no. 2 seed Cooperstown.

But as any F-P fan will tell you, when the Falcons lost those games to Weedsport, it didn't have Stevie Ray, who hadn't yet returned from the ACL tear she suffered in the summer. Ray was back right after the second Weedsport loss, and F-P, also featuring 6-4 center Kirsten Dodge, has flattened everyone since. Think a Warriors-Falcons final, with all the top players present, would be fun?

Not that the C-1 bracket lacks storylines, either. Kristin McGraw has led 16-2 Thousand Islands to the top seed, and the Vikings won't get tested until a semifinal with Herkimer or Tully. Little Falls, quietly effective this winter, works from the no. 2 seed, but pay close attention to that quarterfinal between no. 3 seed Onondaga (who scared Weedsport twice) and defending champ Watertown IHC.

The Class D playoffs got a lot more interesting on Feb. 9. Prior to that, Hamilton, with the Weeks sisters and Katherine Keever slowly picking up the slack for the departed Jordan Peterson, were rolling toward a top seed and a sectional three-peat and had won nine in a row.

Then Oriskany shut down the Emerald Knights 43-26, and now what? Sure, Hamilton still has the top seed, but not only is a familiar face (Poland or New York Mills) likely to be waiting in the semifinals, but Oriskany owns that no. 2 seed.

The trade-off is that the Redskins' bracket appears tougher, with a possible quarterfinal against Sackets Harbor (who plays Madison in the first round), not to mention the presence of no. 3 seed and Frontier League D champ Alexandria Bay, who will start with Rome Catholic or Cincinnatus.

Let the Dome dreams begin...