There are two things certain to be true during March every year. First, spring arrives and gives hope for warmer weather to anyone north of the Mason-Dixon line. Also, the NCAA March Madness tournament is sure to break brackets, ruin people’s gambling bets and cause havoc in the sports world.
I have never been a huge follower of college basketball. This season I watched a total of zero games until my girlfriend convinced me to make a bracket for a chance at winning $55 in a family pool.
When making the bracket, I found myself instantly hooked. The thrill of deciding who was going to make it to the championship game and what teams would upset others overtook me in a heartbeat.
There has never been a perfect bracket in the history of the tournament’s existence, but everyone loves to dream that theirs will be the first. That was me.
Getting 63 games in a row correct is a tall order, and according to sportingnews.com, it would take over nine quintillion brackets to be filled out for one to be completely correct.
In 2019, 49 straight games picked by Gregg Nigl led him to the all-time longest-running bracket. When the first day of this year’s tournament occurred, I began 6-0 and felt like a champ.
There is an element of surprise in all sports that drives the world to express themselves emotionally when their favorite team wins or loses. But, what makes March Madness all the more chaotic?
When you combine 64 teams into a single-elimination tournament, odds are there will be outcomes nobody expects resulting in stories that live on for decades.
Any longtime follower of March Madness remembers in 2018 when the No. 16 seed University of Maryland, Baltimore County, grabbed one of the last spots in the tournament and defeated the No. 1 seed University of Virginia, one of the four best teams in the country before their fall.
Or, when No. 15 seed St. Peter’s went on a Cinderella run, taking down powerhouses including Kentucky and Purdue en route to the Sweet 16.
This year, it is North Carolina State.
Ranking as the No. 11 seed, The Wolfpack began their run by taking down No. 6 Texas Tech. They then went on to beat No. 14 Oakland, before pulling off a pair of massive upsets — first to No. 2 Marquette, and most recently to No. 4 Duke in the Elite Eight.
NC State is a part of an exclusive club, joining just five other teams with the No. 11 seed being the lowest ever to make a semifinal appearance. They will take on No. 1 seed Purdue on Saturday, March 6.
The Wolfpack will attempt to be the first No. 11 seed ever to win a Final Four game, but it won’t be easy. Led by seven-foot-four-inch star Zach Edey, the Boilermakers center dominates the paint and averages 25.0 points, 12.2 rebounds and 2.16 blocks per game.
On the other side of the bracket is No. 1 University of Connecticut and No. 4 University of Alabama.
UConn is the clear favorite to win the entire tournament. They blew out No. 3 Illinois in the Elite Eight by 25 points, embarrassing a top-15 team in the country. Winning the title last year, if the Huskies can repeat claiming the National Championship trophy they would be the first team to do so since the Florida Gators in 2006-07.
The aforementioned $55 lies in the hands of NC State. If they pull off one of the greatest wins in March Madness history, I will head to a head-to-head tiebreaker game in the championship, where the predicted score closest to the actual final wins the big bucks.
Go Wolfpack.
