It is the middle of March, and the madness of the NCAA tournament could not be crazier. Brackets have been busted, making this another year of no perfect brackets for the ESPN tournament challenge. Regardless, the madness has not yet come to a close. The tournament has reached the Sweet Sixteen stage, in which only sixteen teams remain. Before those games start, however, here is a quick look at some of the 48 teams that had their seasons and the expectations of the nation ended this past week.
For the first year in many, the round of 64 went without any huge upsets. Three six seeds– Maryland, Creighton, and SMU– were all defeated which derailed many brackets around the nation but still was not an earthquake among the tournament. It didn’t take long before the round of 32 came around and ruined every single bracket in the United States.
There were four games that defined what March Madness truly is. The first devastating upset was a matchup between Xavier (an eleven seed) and Florida State (a three seed). Not only is it rare for a number three seed to lose, but Florida State went down by 25 points, a huge loss. The next upset came in the game between Louisville, a two seed, and Michigan, a seven seed. The Big 10 champions got the upset of Louisville with a 73-69 win. According to ESPN, almost 20% of brackets around the nation had the Louisville Cardinals making it to the final four and beyond.
Those two games were nothing compared to what was to come, though. The two biggest upsets of the weekend came when eight seed Wisconsin upset the overall number one seed Villanova, the 2016 NCAA champions, 65-62. No brackets remained perfect after this game. The other great game of the weekend came from a stunning victory for South Carolina as they upset the overall favorites of the tournament, the Duke University Blue Devils, 88-81. The Duke loss was of satisfaction to the rest of the nation, except for Pleasant Valley senior Cody Snyder who felt, “Awful. Terrible. Pathetic. Trash. Pissed off.”
March Madness picks up again Thursday and Friday, March 23 and 24. After witnessing the massacre of the first two rounds, senior C.J. Carter has rethought his choice for champion. He said, “I’m going to put my money on Kansas now, Josh Jackson is straight butter.” The ESPN sports analysts also side with Kansas at 15/4 odds to win the tournament now that Duke and Villanova are out. The Sweet Sixteen games can be found on TBS and CBS networks.
Peter zucker • Mar 29, 2017 at 11:18 am
Great article Mark. The tournament has been fun to watch. I think North carolina is going to win