March Madness: San Diego State Faces Northern Colorado

1. San Diego State will hold a watch party Thursday at the Viejas Arena for its NCAA men's basketball tournament game against Northern Colorado. The television broadcast of the game from Tucson, Ariz. will be shown on the arena's scoreboard. Doors will open at 12:30 p.m. with the game scheduled to begin around 1:40 p.m. Parking is available in Parking Structure 5 across from the arena for $1 per hour, but school officials suggest using the trolley. Concessions stands will be open.

The Aztecs are 32-2, sharing the best record among all NCAA Division I teams with Ohio State and Kansas. San Diego State is seeded second in the West Regional, but has never won an NCAA tournament game in six previous tries. Northern Colorado, 21-10, will be making its first NCAA tournament appearance. The Bears are seeded 15th. Since the inception of the 64-team tournament in 1985, the No. 2 seed has a 100-4 record against the No. 15 team. If San Diego State wins, it would face the winner of the Penn State-Temple game Saturday.

2. Southwest Airlines has issued an apologized to a Muslim woman taken off one of its jets before a flight out of Lindbergh Field due to concerns about a comment she made while awaiting takeoff. San Diego State graduate student Irum Abassi was wearing an Islamic head scarf when she was told Sunday that she had to leave the plane because a flight attendant considered her "suspicious.''

3. It will be partly cloudy throughout the county this St. Patrick's Day with wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour in the mountains and deserts. Highs Thursday will be 61 to 66 degrees along the coast, 64 to 69 in the valleys, 55 to 65 in the mountains and 78 to 63 in the deserts.

City News Service contributed to this report.