Mozey: March Madness? More like March mayhem
March 20, 2018
One weekend of March Madness is done, and it’s turned into March mayhem.
If you still have a perfect bracket, there’s only three reasons that you have one. One, you started filling your brackets out on Sunday night after four days of competition. Two, you somehow cheated. I don’t know how, but it happened.
Finally, the last reason would be you guessed really, really well. In that case, I would suggest getting a Powerball ticket because you’re guaranteed to win.
It’s been a crazy four days of the NCAA Tournament. Now that the second round is closed and the Sweet 16 games start next weekend, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to reflect on the weekend.
If you look at the bracket currently, the two sides of the bracket are very different. On one side you have one No. 3 seed (Michigan), one No. 4 seed (Gonzaga), one No. 5 seed (Kentucky), two No. 7 seeds (Nevada and Texas A&M), two No. 9 seeds (Kansas State and Florida State) and one No. 11 seed (Loyola Chicago).
On the other side of the bracket, you have two No. 1 seeds (Villanova and Kansas), two No. 2 seeds (Duke and Purdue), one No. 3 seed (Texas Tech), two No. 5 seeds (West Virginia and Clemson) and one No. 11 seed (Syracuse).
It’s been an unbelievable weekend of college basketball and I’ve been glued to the television and cheering for upsets. The upsets have been outstanding.
The biggest upset in the tournament made history with the defeat of No. 1 seed Virginia by No. 16 seed UMBC. Before that game, the No. 1 seeds were 135-0 in the first round of the tournament, never losing to a No. 16 seed. UMBC was the only team to put a one in the losing column of that record.
The game wasn’t even close as UMBC won by 20 points against Virginia and unfortunately, for Virginia, these players won’t be remembered by their 17-1 ACC regular season record, but only this particular game.
Virginia wasn’t the only favored team to lose by a significant amount of points. The No. 13 seed Buffalo defeated No. 4 seed Arizona by 21 points as everything that Buffalo put up went in the hoop. There was no chance for the Wildcats to come back into the game.
Also in the first round, No. 10 seed Butler beat up on the No. 7 seed Arkansas and won by 17 points. Even though it’s a closer seed matchup, that’s still a dominant win for Butler.
Overall, the first round of the tournament had nine upsets, which led to another six upsets in the second round with the biggest upset coming from the South and Midwest regions.
Loyola Chicago and Syracuse were 11 seeds with a chance to reach the Sweet 16 with victories this weekend. The Ramblers from Loyola went toe-to-toe with No. 3 seed Tennessee and with seconds left in the game and a one-point deficit for Loyola, former Iowa State guard Clayton Custer came to the rescue.
Custer shot a jumper and with a very nice bounce from the rim and the backboard, it went through the hoop to win the game for the Ramblers. They advance to play No. 7 seed Nevada, who knocked off No. 2 seed Cincinnati with a last second shot as well.
The Orange from Syracuse were up against No. 3 seed Michigan State, and one of the favorites by many experts, but with some key free throws and a last second miss by the Spartans, the Orange punched their tickets to the Sweet 16 with a two-point victory. They take on No. 2 seed Duke who had no troubles in its 25-point victory over No. 7 seed Rhode Island.
Similar to Virginia and Arizona in the first round, a few top ranked teams were dominated in the second round. The first came to No. 2 seed and defending champions North Carolina who lost to No. 7 seed Texas A&M by 21 points. It was an ugly game.
The other was No. 5 seed Clemson who embarrassed No. 4 seed Auburn with a 31-point win and a matchup against No. 1 seed Kansas in the Sweet 16.
After these first two rounds of play, I’m excited to see how this tournament unfolds over the next few weekends until a champion to crowned. On one side, the best seeds to play for a spot in the championship is between a No. 3 seed with Michigan and No. 5 seed with Kentucky, while two No. 1 seeds could be competing on the other end.
So, whether you’re a fan of big upsets or the No. 1 seed winning the whole tournament, there’s a team to root for in any given situation.
Now that pretty much every bracket is destroyed, you can sit back and not worry about anything and root for the 16 teams left in this crazy tournament we like to call March Madness.