A daily look at the best of the local sports scene ...

The Madness is here! And there is plenty of Madness in Connecticut for the several days.

-- Quinnipiac's men's basketball team plays host to Mount St. Mary's at 7 p.m. in the first round of the Northeast Conference tournament. Remember, the Bobcats hosted the championship game a year ago. This year, they are the No. 2 seed.

Read about star player Justin Rutter in Bill Cloutier's feature

And check out his game day preview capsule here

Up the road a bit, Central Connecticut plays host to St. Francis, N.Y., also an NEC tournament game, tipping off at 7 p.m.

-- At Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference's men's and women's basketball tournaments begin with women's opening round games.

The Fairfield women, under the direction of Shelton's Joe Frager, begin play Friday. The Fairfield men, MAAC regular-season champs, start play Saturday.

Ticket information and complete schedules can be found here

-- In West Hartford, the America East men's and women's basketball tournaments tip off with opening-round games between 8-9 seeds.

UHart begins play for women and men on Friday.

Here is a link to ticket information and schedule

-- Quinnipiac women's hockey team travels to Cornell to face the Big Red in the Biggest game of the program's history, the ECAC Hockey semifinals.

Read about the Bobcats' incredible journey here

-- Don't forget, the Quinnipiac men's hockey team opens play in the ECAC Hockey tournament Friday , hosting Brown in a best-of-three series. Yale has a bye and returns to action next week.