Invitations are finally out for the Valley's long-awaited college basketball mega party, a decade in the planning.
Preliminary invites that is. There still is the matter of that two-week Hunger Games winnowing from 68 teams selected Sunday for participation in the 79th NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament to those earning the right to RSVP for the first Final Four to be held west of Texas in 22 years.
In 12 previous Final Fours in the West, a team from the West -- UCLA to be specific -- won five, four of those in the John Wooden era. Now, in a remarkable nexus between site and contenders, the West is stacked with four of the best teams in the nation, one just a two-hour drive from University of Phoenix Stadium, where 72,000 are expected for semifinals April 1 and the final April 3.