Adele Has 'Trained Hard' For MTV's Musical March Madness

Last year, when the selection committee was assembling the field of bands for our inaugural Musical March Madness tournament, British belter Adele was left out — an omission that, at the time, seemed somewhat forgivable, considering she was basically off the grid, holed up in Malibu to begin work on the songs that would shape her chart-topping 21 album.

Of course, this year, it would be close to blasphemy not to include Adele in the field of 64 acts that will compete for the MMM trophy. Not only has she conquered the world with 21, but she worked with Rick Rubin on the record, and that dude most certainly rocks, which makes her a shoo-in for the 2011 tourney.

But, as we learned Monday, Adele will face a tough road to the championship. Rock titans Linkin Park have already promised to bring "total dominance" to the 2011 MMM tournament — we'll unveil our entire championship bracket Monday, March 14 — and, as it turns out, Adele doesn't seem to know the first thing about college basketball, which is where this entire idea came from in the first place.

"I don't like sports!" she laughed.

Still, she's willing to give it a try. So we asked her: Just how has she been preparing to take down the likes of Linkin Park in the 2011 Musical March Madness tourney?

"I've trained really hard," she explained. "I've worked really hard this whole season, leading up to the release of this record."

Of course, she followed that boast up with an uncontrollable fit of laughter, but it bears mention that, with an armload of Grammys, a #1 album and fervent fanbase on both sides of the Atlantic, Adele definitely has a shot at shocking the world this year, especially since fans determine all the winners in our tournament.

And, really, if she does manage to come out on top, can you imagine what her acceptance speech would be like?