First things first. It was nice of the Division I Basketball Committee, which includes three men from this state, to highlight our ongoing roundball renaissance by placing UAB, Auburn and Alabama at the same site for the NCAA Tournament’s opening rounds.

That’s one dance party contestant better than last year when Alabama and Auburn played in the same March Madness building on the same day for the first time and did it twice in three days. The location then, Legacy Arena in Birmingham, was the icing on our March Madness cake.

We have a slightly different taste in our mouths this week. Though UAB, Auburn and Alabama will break new ground by playing back-to-back-to-back first-round games Friday in the same building, that building is located in Spokane, Wash., the hometown of Gonzaga, 2,358 miles from Birmingham.

Meanwhile, Samford, which Bucky McMillan is building into the Gonzaga of the South, will play its first NCAA Tournament game in 24 years tonight 1,819 miles from home in Salt Lake City, Utah. That means our four tournament teams, matching the state record set two years ago, rank No. 4 (Auburn), 5, (UAB), 6 (Alabama) and 8 (Samford) among all 68 teams in the field in the distance between their campuses and their opening-round games.

But who’s counting? Besides the fans who dug deep to purchase plane tickets.

And another thing. You’re not supposed to look ahead, not in the NCAA Tournament, where an allegedly overmatched team right in front of you is perfectly capable of correcting your oversight and sending you home, but in this case, how can you not?