March Madness is here and so much has happened! Even though I mostly follow professional basketball, I thought it would be fun to write about everything going on right now in college basketball and all of the excitement!
Every year when March comes around, I fill out a bracket for the tournament. I have had different approaches each year. When I was a bit younger, sometimes I chose teams based on which team names I thought sounded the coolest. Sometimes I strictly chose teams that were considered “underdogs,” and sometimes I have actually tried to choose who I think would win. Because I do not follow college basketball as closely, I genuinely do have to guess when it comes to picking who will win.
This year, I was more excited than other years and really wanted to do well. Despite wanting to do well, I still had to guess on some selections for my brackets because I was not sure who to pick. When you get the bracket to fill out, each team has a ranking, so that can sometimes help. However, there can be major upsets where a team ranked 12th can beat and team ranked 1st, so even with the rankings for each team, there is an element of guessing that occurs because nobody can be completely sure about what will happen. There is a bracket for the men’s tournament and a bracket for the women’s tournament. Don’t worry, I won’t share every individual selection I made for both of my brackets, but I will share who I picked to win it all in both brackets.
For the men’s tournament, I picked Maryland to win it all. Spoiler alert, they lost to Alabama. However, up until then, they were still in it, and I was very hopeful that they would beat Alabama. The game started at 9:40 p.m., and I am a little embarrassed to say I did not stay up to watch it, but I saw the results the next morning and was a little crushed. For the women’s tournament, I also picked Maryland. The great news is that the Maryland women’s team won and is still in the tournament! I am very excited to see how far they go.
While it is still relatively early in the tournament, there have been a lot of exciting moments. One game that was especially exciting that I did get to watch was in the men’s tournament: Princeton against Missouri. Princeton won even though Missouri was the higher ranked team, and it was an awesome game. I was routing for Princeton because my grandfather attended that school, and he was so excited for the game. It was very wholesome. Because Maryland lost in the men’s tournament, I am now fully routing for Princeton. I am very excited for their next game. The men’s team for Arkansas beat Kansas (Kansas won the whole tournament last year), and that was a huge deal. They won by one point. Duke has been eliminated as well! One standout point from the tournament is the fact that so many number one seeds have been eliminated, which, in my opinion, makes the tournament even more exciting.
I filled out a bracket for the men’s tournament and the women’s tournament, but I am doing much better in my women’s tournament bracket. I have guessed more correct games in that bracket, and I am excited to see how the rest of the games turn out.
The tournament is still in the earlier stages so lots is bound to happen, but with the amount of excitement that is already happening, it is bound to get even more exciting. As of right now, I am not sure who will win it all, but I am hoping for more exciting games as the tournament continues. If you are looking for updates, there are accounts on Instagram for both tournaments that are super helpful with updates.