The NCAA’s first Division 1 men’s basketball tournament was played in 1939 and continues to be a huge event today. When the tournament first began, there were only 8 teams, however, by 1985, there were 64 “official” teams in the tournament. Before the official start of the tournament, there are 68 teams, but the NCAA hosts 4 games consisting of the 4 lowest qualifying teams and the last 4 at-large bid teams.
After those games, the tournament can “officially” start. At a Staten Island bar in 1977, 88 people filled out brackets in the tournament pool for that year. Each person paid 10 dollars, and whoever won, got to keep all of the money. Since then, millions of people have filled out a bracket for the NCAA tournament every year. The brackets show all the teams and who they are playing, and people make their best predictions of who will win every game including the championship game. The real question is… Who won this year? Let’s find out.
The official teams in this years tournament were UConn, Stetson, FAU, Northwestern, San Diego State, UAB, Auburn, Yale, BYU, Duquesne, Illinois, Morehead State, Washington State, Drake, Iowa State, Dakota State, North Carolina, Wagner, Mississippi State, Michigan State, Saint Mary’s, Grand Canyon, Alabama, Charleston, Clemson, New Mexico, Baylor, Colegate, Dayton, Nevada, Arizona, Long Beach State, Houston, Longwood, Nebraska, Texas A&M, Wisconsin, James Madison, Duke, Vermont, Texas Tech, NC State, Kentucky, Oakland, Florida, Colorado, Western KY, Marquette, Purdue, Grambling, Utah State, TCU, Gonzaga, Mcneese, Kansas, Samford, South Carolina, Oregon, Creighton, Akron, Texas, Colorado State, Tennessee, and Saint Peter’s.
Going into this year’s tournament, the #1 seeds were UConn, Houston, North Carolina, and Purdue. Last year’s tournament winner was UConn and they were hoping to win a back-to-back championship. In the first round of the tournament, there were a few major “upsets.” These upsets included when #13 seed Yale beat #4 seed Auburn, #11 seed Duquesne beat #6 seed BYU, #12 seed Grand Canyon beat #5 seed Saint Mary’s, #11 seed Oregon beat #6 seed South Carolina, #11 seed NC State beat #6 seed Texas Tech, #12 seed James Madison beat #5 seed Wisconsin, but the biggest upset was when #14 seed Oakland beat #3 seed Kentucky. One star player, Jack Gohlke, had a total of 32 points against Kentucky. 30 of his 32 points were made by 3-pointers, yes, Jack made 10 3-pointers.
In the second round of the March Madness tournament the only “upsets” was when #6 seed Clemson
knocked out #3 seed Baylor. #1 seed Purdue took a HUGE victory over Utah State, winning by 39 points. #5 seed San Diego State beat Yale by 28 points, causing another high-scoring win in the second round. Another huge win was when Duke beat James Madison by 38 points. Duke freshman, Jared McCain had 30 points, sealing the win against James Madison and sending them to the Sweet Sixteen.
The Sweet Sixteen is when the tournament is down to its final 16 teams. #1 seed UConn knocked out #5 seed San Diego State by 30 points. Arizona fans were upset when they lost to Clemson in the Sweet Sixteen. Fans say that Caleb Love had his worst game of the season, fumbling the win for Arizona. Two big upsets happened in this round including when #1 seed North Carolina lost to #4 seed Alabama. Carolina’s star player, RJ Davis, did not shine in this tournament going 0-9 at the 3-point line. He still scored 16 points, but in the end, Carolina couldn’t get the victory. The other upset was when #1 seed Houston lost to #4 seed Duke advancing Duke, along with all the other winners, to the Elite Eight.
The Elite Eight is when the tournament only has 8 remaining teams. #1 seed UConn beat #3 seed Illinois sending them to the Final Four once again. #4 seed Alabama beat #6 seed Clemson sending them to the Final Four as well. Purdue’s Zach Edey scored 40 points, along with 16 rebounds, to advance Purdue to the Final Four. There was only 1 major upset in this round, which was when #11 seed NC State beat #4 seed Duke. Duke freshman Jared McCain scored 32 points, which is exactly half of Duke’s points. However, this freshman’s performance wasn’t enough to send Duke to the next round. An emotional moment for McCain as he has now entered the draft and that was his last game with the Blue Devils.
In the Final Four, many expected a big performance from NC State since they have been causing major upsets left and right, however, NC State’s DJ Burns Jr. wasn’t big enough to body Purdue’s 7’4” player, Zach Edey. In the end, NC State dug themselves into a hole they couldn’t get out of, causing them to lose by 13 points. #1 seed UConn beat #4 seed Alabama causing them to head to the championship for 2 years in a row. Winning by 14 points, UConn would have won 11 straight NCAA tournament games by at least 13 points.
Heading into the Finals, it was a battle between #1 seed Purdue and the Defending champs, #1 seed UConn. Purdue’s Zach Edey is a dominant force in the paint, bodying any big in the nation because of his extreme height. In this championship game, he performed extremely well, scoring 37 of 60 points for Purdue as well as grabbing 10 rebounds. However, even with an excellent performance by Edey, it wasn’t enough for Purdue to get the victory. 7 of UConn’s players scored, 4 of them scoring over 10 points. UConn’s Tristen Newton had 20 points, 7 assists, and 5 rebounds, but for UConn, this championship game was more of a team win, compared to Purdue’s team relying on one main force. The UConn Huskies ended up winning by 15 points causing them to be back-to-back champions.
