March is the time for madness within the world of basketball. Every year, millions of brackets are made in attempt to create the perfect bracket. In order to put together the perfect bracket of 68 teams, one has to choose the upsets. The 2018 March Madness tournament has been full of underdogs sneaking their way through the tournament.
Quite possibly the biggest upset of the tournament was when 16-seed University of Maryland, Baltimore County beat one of the four number one seeds, the University of Virginia. The Retrievers became the first 16-seed to beat a number one seed in the history of the men’s NCAA tournament. “It makes it interesting,” Senior Cooper Edwards commented. “You can think a top school will easily beat these teams, but this year goes to show that’s not the always the case.”
On the other hand, in the women’s NCAA tournament, all four number one seeds will play in the final four. Louisville will play Mississippi State while Notre Dame will try to take down UCONN. The teams will play March 30 and the two winners will play in the championship on April 1.
Perhaps everyone’s favorite cinderella story has been Loyola-Chicago from the Missouri Valley Conference. Their journey started by beating Miami 64-62, then going on to beat Tennessee 63-62. They made their way to the Sweet Sixteen and beat Nevada 69-68, and continued to beat Kansas State 78-62 in the Elite Eight. The team will look to carry this impressive streak in the final four against Michigan on Saturday.
The star of the Loyola basketball team leads the team in prayer before the team’s games. She goes by the name Sister Jean, and is 98 years old. She is dedicated to the team and is believed to be like a family member. Sister Jean was a part of Loyola when they last won a NCAA prize in 1963. “I told them that we were going to win, that we could do it and that God would be on our side,” Sister Jean said in an interview.
As an international sensation, she has all the faith in her team and will continue with them on their cinderella story. “I hope they win it all,” Pleasant Valley student Zach James stated. “I hope the team gets their fairy tale ending.”
