The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament has been fairly devoid of madness this year.  No Cinderella teams, few upsets, hardly any buzzer-beaters.  Yawn. 

March in the wolf world, however, was full of madness.  On March 6th, Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was removing wolves in Montana and Idaho from the endangered species list, but wolves in Wyoming would remain listed (even though wolves in the northern Rockies know state boundaries about as well as they do the rosters of UNC, UConn, MSU, or Villanova).  This decision caught many by surprise, as it is legally and scientifically deficient. 

The rule had originally been released by the Bush administration in January, but it -- and all other last-minute rules issued by the Bush administration -- was frozen by the Obama administration for further review.  And because of President Obama's pledged commitment to science, many hoped the Bush wolf-delisting rule would be withdrawn following its review by the Obama administration.  No such luck, it turns out.  This move is on par with Chris Webber's calling a timeout with none left in the '93 final.

Following the delisting announcement came news that wolves in Wyoming had been tested for brucellosis and -- as expected -- do not have the disease.  The testing was in response to concern that wolves could be a threat to spread brucellosis and a bill introduced in the Wyoming legislature regarding the same.  Since this brouhaha over wolves and brucellosis was scientifically a non-issue, as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's wolf recovery project director for Wyoming admitted, it ultimately constitutes a Jimmy-V-and-NC-State-over-Houston slam dunk of lunacy. 

Last week, the Christian-Laettner-are-you-kidding-me act of madness arrived when a story broke that a family in Washington is suspected of killing a wolf from the first wild wolf pack established in that state and attempting to ship it to Canada.  How did the federal and state agents learn of the killing?  A FedEx employee called the police to inform them that a woman had just dropped off a package that was leaking blood.  The woman said the item being shipped was a rug.  The authorities inspected the package and found a freshly killed wolf hide in the box.  What an amateur.  Everyone knows you get rid of all the blood before you ship the pelt of an endangered species to a foreign country. 

It's finally April.  Hopefully this will be a better month for wolves.  Unfortunately, however, the wolf-delisting rule was published yesterday in the Federal Register.  Because of this rule's flaws, NRDC and other conservation groups, represented by Earthjustice, will go back to federal court to challenge the rule.  So much for April.

And as for the Final Four, I'm pulling for Michigan State, who is coached by Tom Izzo, who was born and raised in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which is home to many wolves.  Howl.