By Richard Ray:
The NCAA’s Men’s College Basketball tournament has synonymously been called March Madness for many years now. The trademarked term came into place because of the upsets and buzzer beaters that took place over the years to signify the madness and unpredictability of the tournament to crown the college basketball champion.
Every year there are buzzer beaters and upsets, but in the end the Final Four teams competing for the championship are usually favored and predictable. Well this year may be different. We are only in the first week of the three week tournament, but if the first week was any indication this year could possibly live up to its overhyped name more than recent years past.
For the first time in the tournament’s history a #16 seed, (the lowest possible) beat a #1 seeded University of Virginia. Most people, college basketball fans or not, had never heard of the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) prior to their victory over UVA, and the upset changed the face of the tournament not to mention busting probably 99.9% of the brackets out there. Virginia was a strong favorite to win it all and their defeat along with that of another favorite, The University oF Arizona to the University of Buffalo changed the landscape of the tournament. Two other favorites, Villanova and Duke still presently remain, but the parity in college basketball this year clearly shows that nothing is certain.
March Madness always brings a heavy dose of feel good stories to balance out the agony of defeat. None are more inspiring than that of UMBC’s win and the two victories by Loyola University-Chicago. The university hadn’t experienced an NCAA tournament invite since 1985 and prior to that the school had made only four other tournament appearance since the 1960s, including a championship in 1963. So the two victories and Sweet Sixteen appearance were a surprise to everyone outside of their campus. Their victories included a buzzer beater over the favored University of Miami and a game winner against the much more heralded SEC champ, University of Tennessee with less than four seconds remaining. The University of Michigan’s buzzer beater over the University of Houston highlighted the March Madness that is actually living up to its usually over hyped name.
There are still plenty of games remaining. It is very likely one of the favorites like Villanova, Xavier or Duke will win, but for once the hype of the event seems to be living up to its namesake.
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