View From America explains the Stateside phenomenon of March Madness

America goes crazy for its college basketball on Thursday with the start of the NCAA Tournament – or March Madness – as it’s called.

"Beware the Ides of March", a soothsayer once told Julius Caesar, warning of the great leader's death. Ignoring the soothsayer turned out to be a real brute for the great Roman leader…

Anyway, the kings of college basketball - Kansas, Michigan State, Virginia, Oregon, North Carolina - had better watch out for the Ides of March - or the giant-killers.

But before all that, let's fill you in with what it's all about:

What is March Madness?

It's a 64-team basketball tournament, spread over three weeks. The first round starts this Thursday and ends late on Friday, the second round in Saturday-Sunday, and then the last 'Sweet' 16 is March 24-25, the 'Elite Eight' is Saturday-Sunday March 26-27, and then it's Saturday's 'Final Four' is April 2, and the Final on Monday April 4.

In other words, if you love your basketball and all the excitement that goes with it, you've picked the right month.

How does it work?

If you've splurged a lot of betting money on college basketball this season, it's pretty likely that you have been lucky to break even this season. Everyone seems to have beaten everybody. It's been like a big Premier League.

And that parity has made things really, really fun. The way that the pre-March Madness season works is that there's a 1-25 ranking, with No 1 the best and 25th a mere marker. Frankly, the committee should be ranking 64 teams, but that would take the glamour out of March Madness, plus it would be 25 'ranked' teams is tradition.

In college basketball there are four quadrants (North, South, East, West), where the No 1 team is matched up with a No 16 team, No 2 team matched up with a No 15 team and so on. If you've had an inconsistent regular season, you're going to be ranked lower than if you've had a good season. It's the same reason why, say, Novak Djokovic is always the No 1 seed at Wimbledon and he rarely ever loses.

There's a lot of money spent…

The opening four day of March Madness also the busiest day for visitors in Vegas apart from the Super Bowl, and is generally seen as a quasi-national holiday. And with the first day coming on Thursday, which ties in nicely with St Patrick's Day, expect a lot of luck to be requested!

Who are the favourites?

Kansas (6/1), Michigan State (13/2), North Carolina (7/1) are your three main favourites, and there's some love for Virginia and Kentucky (both 12/1). I happen to think Kansas are a lovely bet at 6/1 for the title, although Michigan State - who won't face Kansas unless it's the final - is equally good money for 13/2. Kansas have been in great form since late January and seeing some of their games in the run-in, they are nothing if not impressive.

NCAA = NBA future?

One of the best things about March Madness is thinking: "Will these guys do well in the NBA?"

Steph Curry, who currently can't do anything wrong in the NBA, was a hero for small school Davidson, taking them to the sweet 16 with a string of incredible performances.

Magic Johnson lit up the tourney in 1979 for Michigan State. He was then drafted first by the LA Lakers. He did pretty well after that. Johnson faced off in the final against Indiana State and future Hall of Famer Larry Bird.

Oh, and a guy who played for North Carolina hit the game-winning shot in the 1982 Championship Game. His name was Michael Jordan.

We can't wait for the 2016 crop - although we'll be without almost-certain No 1 pick Ben Simmons from LSU, who isn't making an appearance this year.

So let the madness come…

The best thing - unless you're a betting man - isn't the domination of the big teams. It's the small schools making history. I still remember where I was watching No 15 Hampton beating No 2 Iowa State in 2001, and No 11 George Mason beating No 1 Connecticut in 2006.

I remember No 15 Lehigh's upset of the one of college basketball's superpowers - Duke (No 2) in 2012. And No 14 Mercer doing the same to Duke - then ranked No 3 - in 2014. And of course, when everybody's favourite - Kentucky - lost to unfancied Wisconsin in the Final Four last year, we all went a bit mad too.

Let's hope for more of the same in 2016!