This year, March Madness has been, well… madness. Across all brackets, the NCAA basketball tournament has been entertaining with a glimpse of talented athletes that we’ll have to watch and potentially see in the NBA or WNBA.
This year will be the second time in tournament history that all 1st-seed teams in the men’s bracket will be in the Final Four in the history of March Madness since 2008. Yep, sorry. No Cinderella team in the Final Four. Tragic, I know. This year, the lowest seeds to win were a 12th seed, McNeese and Colorado State, and a team coming out of nowhere and going to the Elite Eight or Final Four is what makes the tournament worth watching. But the teams are more than deserving of their spot. And for the first game, the Tigers will meet with the Gators.
AUBURN VS FLORIDA:
The Auburn Tigers finished the year off ranked 4th nationally in the AP Top 25 with a regular season and finished 1st in the SEC, going 15-3 in conference play. This team has been led by senior center Johni Broome, who’s averaging 17.3 points per game on 50% shooting from the field and 13.3 rebounds in the tournament, making him a strong contender for Naismith Player of the Year.
Coming off their fifth SEC conference title and being ranked 3rd in the country, the Florida Gators have emerged as one of the strongest teams in March, with a leader in senior guard Walter Clayton Jr., who has averaged 22.3 points per game in the tournament while shooting 45% from beyond the arc. He’ll be coming into this game after an amazing performance in the Elite Eight against Texas Tech with 30 points, 4 assists, and 2 blocks on 50% shooting.
DUKE VS HOUSTON:
With a rich basketball history, the Duke Blue Devils finished off the season ranked 1st in the nation and made their 18th Final Four appearance in program history while being led by the consensus number-one pick in this year’s NBA Draft, Cooper Flagg. The freshman phenom from Maine has averaged 19.5 points a contest while shooting 45% from the field in the tournament, having a 30-point game versus the Arizona Wildcats in the Sweet 16. But if they want their 12th national championship game, they’ll have to pass the Houston Cougars. The Cougars are coming off winning the Big 12 Conference championship, and LJ Cryer has been playing well for them, having a 30-point game in the round of 32 against Gonzaga.
In the Women’s Bracket, things have heated up to set up for an entertaining watch.
TEXAS VS SOUTH CAROLINA:
In the SEC Championship game, these two teams met and the Gamecocks ran away with the win, beating the Longhorns by almost twenty. And now, nearly a month later, they meet again to see who will move on to play in Tampa, Florida, for the championship game. For the Gamecocks, Joyce Edwards, MiLaysia Fulwiley, and Chloe Kitts have been the main game-changers for that team, while for Texas, junior center Madison Booker has led her team to their first Final Four appearance since 2003. Booker is averaging about 19 points a contest in the tournament while shooting 50% from the field
UCONN VS UCLA:
In this matchup, both teams won their conference championship game, and UCONN comes into this game as the only 2-seed in the Final Four. Senior guard and projected #1 pick in the WNBA Draft, Paige Bueckers has gone nuclear for UCONN, having 3 straight 30+ point games in the NCAA Tournament, with a 40-ball in the Elite Eight against Oklahoma and a 30-point outing against USC to go into the Final Four. She’s averaging 35 these past three games. For UCLA, their junior center, Lauren Betts, has had two 30+ point games in the tournament. Averaging 23 points and 9 rebounds a game during March Madness, she’s helped hold her team down and has been a big piece in UCLA’s success in the tournament.
Many people have said that March Madness has been boring without the upsets and low-seeded teams winning, but they don’t realize that we are getting to witness the best of the best in both tournament brackets. We are getting to see one of the top-heavy tournaments in both brackets in recent history. And as we watch these athletes compete and make names for themselves on one of the biggest stages, not just in college basketball, but in all of basketball.
