Every year 64 of the best college teams in the nation face-off to decide who is the best of the best, this event is March Madness.
March Madness usually draws a large crowd with many WS students watching the games and filling out their own brackets, some do it for the fun while others are more competitive. Many take their time to study teams and matchups to figure out who will come out on top, others simply choose teams randomly hoping they will get lucky. Either way can work, there is no real science that can predict who the champion will be.
“I filled my bracket out in a few minutes; I just choose the teams with the coolest logo. I think all my picks were right for the first round,” said Senior Matthew Grady.
This year the team to watch was the Kentucky Wildcats, they were undefeated in the regular season, they had nine McDonald’s All Americans, and some claimed that they were better than weaker NBA teams. With all of this the Wildcats looked like they would destroy the rest of the competition. The Wildcats were knocked out in the Final Four by the Wisconsin Badgers 71-64 who went on to play in the Championship game. Wisconsin was led by its seniors, especially Frank Kaminsky,winner of the John R. Wooden Award and the Naismith Men’s College Player of the Year, who helped them get that far in the tournament.
“I think that Kentucky was the best team coming into the tournament, but they made a lot of mistakes when they played Wisconsin that they couldn’t recover from,” said Sophomore Thomas Nguyen.
Every year there is always a Cinderella story this year it was the Michigan State Spartans. The number seven seed in their division the Spartans were not expected to go far but they beat the odds and made it to the Final Four. Michigan State’s journey started with a win against Georgia, next they upset number two seed Virginia, and finally they beat NC State in the elite eight. Sadly their dreams were crushed by Duke, the Spartans lost by twenty points.
After all was said and done The Duke Blue Devils were the team to come out on top, beating Wisconsin 68-63. Duke was the number one seed in their division and even though Duke is known for its success in basketball their win was still a surprise, considering the hype around Kentucky. Duke’s head coach Mike Krzyzewski has now won five National Championships, more than any other active coach in the NCAA.
“It’s an amazing feeling when the clock hits zero and you know that your team is the best in the nation,” said Senior Bobby Hafer.