The chaos has already begun this past week with the official start of March Madness. The NCAA’s Men’s College Basketball tournament has already seen some incredible upsets and dramatic turns. Part of what makes the tournament so exciting to watch is that anyone can feel like they have a stake in the game through their brackets. Whether your team is in the championship or not, the craziness of the tournament brings in fans from all corners of the country.
If your bracket was still intact after Thursday, congratulations are in order, because according to the official NCAA March Madness Twitter, only 0.065 percent of brackets remained perfectly intact after last Thursday’s games. Princeton shocked the nation by clawing their way to a win over Arizona for a final score of 59-55. The Ivy League Tigers were seeded at no. 15, so their win against the no. 2 seed Wildcats wreaked havoc on millions of brackets.
In other major March Madness news from last Thursday, the no. 13 seed Furman Paladins added another huge upset to people’s brackets by knocking out no. 3 seed Virginia. Furman’s win was historic for the team that had not made it to the tournament in 43 years. Despite a 12-point lead between the Cavs and Paladins occurring at one point within the game, Furman was able to close the gap and eventually hit a three-pointer with less than 10 seconds on the clock to win the game.
Perhaps the most shocking game of the first round came on Friday, however, when for only the second time in NCAA tournament history, a no. 16 seed beat a no. 1 seed in a historic win for Fairleigh Dickinson against Purdue. According to the NCAA, the game shattered all remaining perfect brackets. Each team fought hard until the bitter end, neither holding more than a six-point lead the entire game. With FDU drilling in a three with just over a minute left in the game, the Boilermakers did their best to force turnovers. With eight seconds left, however, FDU player Demetre Roberts was able to make two free throws and win the game for the Knights. The team stormed the court after the incredible victory. In a statement after the game, the Knights’ head coach Tobin Anderson said, “I love our guys. They’re tough, they’re gritty, they played their tails off. That’s an unbelievable win. We just did something that’s unbelievable. We just shocked the world.”
This year FSU did not find a spot among the 68 participating teams, but it’s always fun to look back on the 2019-2020 season, when FSU Men’s Basketball sat at number four in the AP poll and was expected to make a significant run in the NCAA tournament before it was canceled due to the pandemic. Prior to 2020, the team had made the Sweet 16 for three straight years (2018-2020). With two years left on his current contract, head coach Leonard Hamilton has time to bring the team back to such spots in the D1 Men’s Basketball championship.
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