LONDON, Ont. -- Quick: What's the basketball team at Wright State University called?

Too hard? OK, here's an easier question: Where the heck is Wright State University?

If you're like most Canadians, the odds against knowing the answer are about the same as your grandmother hitting a buzzing-beating jumpshot from mid-court.

But if Dayton, Ohio's Wright State Raiders play 14-seed Cinderella and beat third-ranked Pittsburgh in the opening round of March Madness Thursday, even Canada's most casual sports fan will know all about them.

That's the strange spell the U.S. college basketball tournament casts on Canada's sports landscape: Grabbing fans who don't otherwise know Dick Vitale from Dick Cheney and even briefly unseating hockey atop the country's sports heap.

As one observer says, it also proves we're more American-influenced than most care to admit.

"Our media is pretty much connected to the American media," said Darwin Semotiuk, a University of Western Ontario professor who has studied sport and culture.

"Here's an example of excitement around institutions that, other than March Madness, have little if any meaning to individuals in the country."

The interest is most certainly intense: Office pools abound, newspaper coverage explodes and viewership for the tournament's biggest games can triple that of a regular Toronto Raptors NBA game.

The gambling numbers are even more stunning: One analyst estimated Canadians bet as much as $500 million during March Madness, one-tenth of the $5.5 billion plunked down by Americans.

But it's the tournament's inherently dramatic single-elimination format -- not the lure of gambling -- that makes it so popular, Semotiuk said.

"It's the hype," he said. "It's marketed, marketed, marketed, marketed. It's so unpredictable (and) people really like to see the unpredictability of things."

Sarnia native David Hehn, who played in the NCAA tournament three times with the Vermont Catamounts, offered a similar explanation of its spell-binding effects in hockey-mad Canada.

"It's just an opportunity for the underdog to create the huge upset that everyone wants to see," said Hehn, whose 2005 team played Cinderella and beat powerhouse Syracuse.

An e-mail floating around underscores the thinking it's the tournament's format -- not the sport itself -- that draws the interest of Canadians.

In it, about 300 words are spent describing the rules and regulations of a local March Madness betting pool.

But Canada's university basketball championship tournament, happening this weekend in Halifax, drew a slightly shorter mention.

"I am also interested in doing a CIS men's basketball pool, $5 entry, winner takes all," the 20-word footnote read. "E-mail me if interested."