For many girls in college, March means two things: spring break and St. Patrick’s Day. But for me, March means the biggest college basketball tournament of the year: March Madness. March Madness is the culmination of college basketball that ends with a three week tournament where the 68 best teams in the nation play for the championship.
Here’s a breakdown of how the teams are chosen: The first 32 teams in the tournament won their conference, the next 36 are decided by the NCAA committee on Selection Sunday. They were chosen because of how well they did in the season, and this is where you get the popular teams such as the University of Kentucky, Indiana, and Duke. All of these teams do their best to guard, shoot, and dribble (or in NCAA insider terms, “dance”) to the finals of the tournament.
The tournament starts with four games prior to the first round. These eight teams have one last chance to prove themselves. They didn’t have the best season but the NCAA committee thought that they should have one last shot at the tournament. The first two days of the tournament will be these teams playing. FGCU (Florida Gulf Coast University), Wichita State, Michigan, and Holy Cross claimed these spots earlier this week.
There are four divisions, East, West, South, and Midwest. These four divisions are the locations where the teams will be playing. Each section has 16 teams and your job, if you have a bracket is to pick which team will win the game. Your job is to predict what’s going to happen. But here’s the thing, you don’t have to pick the number one team. Actually you shouldn’t pick the number one team, just because you had a great regular season, doesn’t mean you get a spot in the Final Four. All it means is you had a good regular season. And in March Madness, having a good regular season doesn’t mean much.
Oregon may have the number 1 ranking in the West but it’s not the time to be comparing number 1 seeds. You have to look at each match up individually. Who’s got the best chance of winning, who’s Cinderella, and which team is going to find the glass slipper.
The above image shows a celebrated phenomenon, underdog teams becoming “Cinderellas” who end up winning in the March Madness Tournament.
Here’s a look at my picks for who’s the one to watch and players that have been doing big things all season:
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Kansas, the number 1 team in the nation according to The AP Top 25 Poll. Their top player, Perry Ellis has been to “the dance” (participated in the NCAA Tournament) March Madness for the past 3 years but has come up short with losing in the Sweet 16 his freshman year and having been beaten in the second round the past 2 years. Kansas defeated their rival, Austin Peay in the first round putting up triple points for a score of 105-79. They’ll be playing ninth ranked UCONN in the second round.
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Oklahoma. Who may be ranked 7th in the nation but also has the number 1 player in college basketball at the moment. Remember the name Buddy Hield, because I expect him to be doing big things in these upcoming games. He wants to lead the Oklahoma Sooners to their first Final Four appearance since 2002, and with him being a senior, this is his last chance. The Sooners will be playing CSU Bakersfield for their first round of the tournament.
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Michigan State. Denzel Valentine will be the one to watch on this team. As a senior he has led the Spartans to be the 2nd ranked team in the nation and the only team to have beaten Kansas. In this game, Valentine had his best game of the season with 29 points, 12 rebounds, and 12 assists. Michigan State will be playing 15th seed Middle Tennessee and looking to advance to the second round.
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And my personal favorite, UNC, or University of North Carolina. 3rd in the nation and with a record of 28-6, UNC has my vote for winning March Madness. Brice Johnson, scoring 39 points against Florida State in January has been proving his consistency with averaging 23.5 points in both games against Duke. UNC beat FGCU in the first round of the tournament 83-67, and now is looking to advance to the Sweet Sixteen by beating ninth ranked Providence.
March Madness is the most random of three weeks of the year, you never know what to expect. University of Arkansas Little Rock took down fifth ranked Purdue, and Gonzaga, the 11th seed, stunned fans by beating the sixth seed, Seton Hall. And that’s just one day of the tournament.
So ladies, if you’re not into sports sit back and watch your boyfriends go crazy over the next couple weeks, because their brackets are about to get busted. And if you are? I’ll see you all in the Final Four.