RALEIGH—As the large oak trees part and the Lenovo Center comes into view a short commute from North Carolina’s state capital, it doesn’t take long for the eyes to be drawn to the NCAA-themed graphics that drape the outside of the arena. 

“Welcome to Raleigh” reads the most prominent one, flanked by the March Madness logo that is set to become ubiquitous for the next three weeks across the country. 

Though the signage is mostly intended to be a message for those arriving for the first two rounds of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament taking place in the building, it could be taken quite literally with some subtle editing. 

March Madness is, indeed, welcome—and not just limited to the confines of Raleigh either. 

The Triangle, in reference to the hoops-loving campuses of the North Carolina Tar Heels, Duke Blue Devils and North Carolina State Wolfpack that call the area home, has always been hoops mad to an almost unhealthy degree. It is the home to the sport’s most iconic rivalry along Tobacco Road, and one cannot go far without running into a famous gym to see a freshly hung Final Four banner.

But this season, in the only month that truly matters in the sport, things have been taken to an unprecedented level. 

With all due respect to the lot of Hall of Fame coaches who have drawn attention to the smallest state in the union, or the slew of other sub-regional sites with interesting story lines that dot the country, this is the true epicenter of college basketball.

“My personal favorite time of the year, and it’s always a blessing to be a part of March Madness,” a smiling Baylor Bears men’s coach Scott Drew said. “I think all parents can relate to it. It’s kind of like kids opening up Christmas gifts, birthday gifts.”

Santa didn’t just come early in the Tar Heel State this week. He also came bearing bags full of gifts for those who enjoy a bit of roundball action. 

On the men’s side, the back-to-back national champion UConn Huskies will be looking to defend their titles and attempt to do something—go for a third—that hasn’t been done since John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins dynasty decades ago. 

The presumptive No. 1 overall pick in the NBA this summer, Cooper Flagg, is also on hand and set to return to action after injuring his ankle. His Blue Devils, along with the fellow top-seeded Florida Gators, are two of the odds-on favorites to win this year’s tournament.  

The Oklahoma Sooners and Mississippi State Bulldogs both survived a gauntlet in the SEC to get here with eyes on furthering the cause of the league’s historic season. The Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers already won a tournament game, while their fellow No. 16 seed, the Norfolk State Spartans, is dancing for the third time in five years. Given that UConn and Baylor are winners of three of the last four titles, loaded doesn’t even begin to describe the mood around town for hoops junkies ahead of tip-off this week.

“This tournament, there’s nothing like it. The thing you look forward to, you work all summer for, everything, is to be on this stage to where it’s win and advance. So what we’re looking forward to is to competing, to competing to get a win and one at a time,” Oklahoma men’s coach Porter Moser said. “For us to get in, and I think what’s been evident the last four days of practice, is they’re just not happy to just be here.”

That hunger is present right up the road, too, helping elevate an eye-opening weekend of hoops into a nirvana. All three ACC schools in the Triangle earned top seeds as part of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament and will host multiple games in their home gyms. 

One set of first- and second-round games is fun enough, but this week there are four all within a half-hour drive of each other.

That included a First Four outing on Thursday night between the No. 11 seeds Washington Huskies and Columbia Lions at UNC’s famed Carmichael Arena, where Dean Smith helped make Carolina Blue instantly recognizable a few decades ago, to officially tip off five straight days of near nonstop games. 

The Ivy League side fell behind double digits at halftime to its Big Ten opponent, but wound up going on a furious second-half run. The Lions hit six of their final eight shots from the field to prevail 63–60, sending coach Megan Griffith fist-pumping the assembled crowd with fury at the final buzzer after helping notch the program’s first NCAA tournament win.

“They heard what they needed to hear,” a jubilant Griffith joked of her speech to spark a 41–26 second-half run that doubled as a nice feather in the cap of an Ivy League that sent three teams dancing for the first time. “We came back out ready to attack.”

Columbia moves on to face the West Virginia Mountaineers on Saturday, part of a doubleheader in Chapel Hill that also matches up the ACC regular-season co-champions at home versus the WCC tournament winners in the Oregon State Beavers. Four more teams are set to play at the same time on campus at NC State’s Reynolds Coliseum, including a Wolfpack side aiming to begin a road to back-to-back Final Four appearances.

Over at rival Duke, a confluence of factors will lead to an even more interesting Friday in the area.

The men’s team will tip off around lunchtime at Lenovo Center against Mount St. Mary’s, while historic Cameron Indoor Stadium will host a pair of women’s tournament games in the evening. Some enterprising Blue Devils fans, to say nothing of athletic director Nina King and several other administrators, will no doubt attempt to see both teams in action as part of a rare double-site, doubleheader.

“It’s just nice not to have to get on a plane, ride over here on a bus,” said Duke freshman forward Kon Knueppel of the easy commute. “Not too much travel, soreness, and stuff like that.”

“If you don’t come ready to play, you’ll lose,” women’s coach Kara Lawson said as a general caution against being too comfortable. “I think that’s what we all like about March, is that it’s unpredictable. You can’t put your finger on it. You have to play well to win. That’s how it should be.”

Unique circumstances or not, survive and advance cuts the same way for all 21 teams who have descended upon hotels up and down Interstate 40 that divides the sprawling region. 

“I think we are excited to be in the tournament. I feel like, in maybe a weird way, it’s a little pressure off of us going into the tournament. Like we could just go out and let them rip right now,” said UConn coach Dan Hurley, currently sporting a 12-game winning streak in the men’s tourney but coming off a disappointing regular season. “If we can find a way to advance, UConn becomes very dangerous when we find a way to get out of the first round.

“We could salvage the whole year. And we have the capability.”

While his own fan base might be slightly skeptical of that after seeing the Huskies falter from preseason top 10 to unranked and a No. 8 seed in the bracket, that’s the beauty of the dueling tournaments that are underway in the Triangle. Everyone enters with hope and 40 minutes separates a long flight home from playing again another day.

Perhaps that is why interest, even in one of the hotbeds of the sport, is so palpable everywhere you turn.

Outside Carmichael on Thursday, after a rainstorm swept through to give way to a beautiful spring equinox sunset, one group of fans mostly clad in UNC gear made a beeline for the ticket office a few minutes before Columbia and Washington tipped off. They wanted good seats in the lower sections, they said, and were happy to purchase them on the spot. 

While the natives from ACC territory could have been following along with the games underway elsewhere on the first day of the men’s tournament instead of attending a play-in game between women’s sides from opposite coasts, the interaction underscored just how special a week it is around the Triangle.

March Madness is not only here, it’s welcomed with open arms.

More March Madness on Sports Illustrated