Among other oddities regarding this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament there is this: three schools from upstate New York (real upstate New York) are dancin’ in 2021.

The last time Syracuse, St. Bonaventure, and Colgate all made the Big Dance?

Anyone?

Yup. Never!

Add in “upstate” New York Iona (it’s upstate if you live in the city or “way the hell upstate” if you live on Long Island) and you’ve got a new Tobacco Road along the Hudson-Erie Corridor.

This is basketball country.