March Madness is an annual college basketball tournament where the top 64 teams in Men’s and Women’s basketball, respectively, compete for the championship. March Madness is known to be one of the most competitive, exciting, and fun competitions in all of sports, and this year’s edition doesn’t look like it will disappoint.
There are teams in this year’s March Madness tournament with some impressive resumes, with four teams that have 30 wins or higher in UCONN (University of Connecticut), Houston, James Madison, and McNeese. The four #1 seeds in the tournament are none other than UCONN, Houston, North Carolina, and Purdue. 8 Seed Mississippi State face off against 9 seed Michigan State to kick off March Madness, on March 21st at 12:15pm ET.
One of the biggest stories headed into March Madness is 15 seed Long Beach State, who had agreed to let go of longtime head coach Dan Monson. They made a miracle run in the Big West Tournament, winning the championship against UC Davis, clinching their spot in March Madness.
A huge part of March Madness is the upsets, and especially last year’s March Madness where 16 seed FDU beat 1 seed Purdue, and the Final Four included 4 seed UCONN, 5 seed Miami, 9 seed FAU (Florida Atlantic University), and 5 seed San Diego St. James Ferrante ‘27 says, “I can’t wait for March Madness every year because of all the upsets which makes it very exciting.” With all 64 teams in the tournament, there are bound to be upsets every year, but for those people filling out their bracket, it is so unpredictable every year who will get beaten.
Speaking of brackets, a very popular thing that people love to do is fill out a bracket, hoping to predict the winner of each game, up until the Championship. According to Sports Illustrated, around 60-100 million brackets are filled out each year, and there has never been a perfect bracket. In fact, the odds of making a perfect bracket is 1 in 9.2 quintillion. The closest that anyone has ever gotten to a perfect bracket was Greg Nigl in 2019, who correctly predicted the first 49 games of the tournament, the first person ever to perfectly get past the second round.
In this year’s March Madness, there will be star firepower all across the board. Purdue’s Zach Edey who is averaging 24.4 points, 11.7 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game. North Carolina’s Armando Bacot is entering his fifth year in which he is averaging 14.1 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game. Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht, averaging 21.1 points per game, with a 39.7 3pt %, and a season high of 40 points in a loss to Kentucky earlier this year. Houston’s Jamal Shead averaged 13.1 points per game, with 6.2 assists per game, and 2.3 steals per game.
The first round is from March 21st-22nd, with the second round beginning March 23rd-24th. Then, the Sweet 16 begins March 28th and continues to the 29th, while the Elite Eight is March 30th-31st. Finally, the National Championship game in Glendale, Arizona will be on Saturday, April 6th at State Farm Stadium. According to Johnson and Wales University, over 12.85 million people watched the Final Four of last year’s edition of March Madness.
When asked about what makes March Madness special, Andrew Tropp 26’ states “The upsets and Cinderella runs make it very exciting and it is really the only tournament in which this can happen, which just makes it that much more special.” Since the tournament has expanded to 68 teams in 1985, 63% of champions were 1 seeds, but there are outliers, like in 2014 when a 7 seed UConn won, or in 1985 when the 8 seed Villanova won it all.
There is one local team that is in March Madness, and it is one that people may not expect. Saint Peter’s, out of Jersey City, New Jersey, is the 15 seed facing up against two seed Tennessee. Bigger schools in New Jersey such as Rutgers, Seton Hall, and Princeton, with Rutgers’ first round loss in the Big Ten Tournament, Seton Hall being a part of the First Four out of the Bracket, and Princeton losing to Brown in the semifinal of the Ivy League Tournament. Rutgers finished 15-17 and 13th in the Big Ten Conference, most recently appearing in 2022. Seton Hall finished 4th in the Big East, with a 20-12 record, but losing in the first round of the Big East tournament was a big blow to their tournament hopes. Princeton finished 24-4 and first in the Ivy League, but lost to Brown in the semifinals and that was their only chance in making the tournament.
Overall, March Madness is a very big spectacle in which 64 college basketball teams compete for the National Championship, and March Madness glory. Students here at BHS look forward to these events, and there should be many upsets, leading to lots of excitement.
