Slated to begin on March 19th, NCAA’s Division 1 Men’s Basketball Tournament (dubbed “March Madness) is one of the most highly anticipated sporting events of the year. In an elimination-style tournament, 68 teams will compete before one is crowned a victor.
The competition’s official tournament bracket will be released on “Selection Sunday,” March 15, where teams will be divided into four regions: East, South, Midwest, and West. Within these divisions, the teams will be “seeded,” or assigned a numerical value from 1-16 to assess their strength, with 1 being the favorite and 16 being the weakest team. Following this determination, the four lowest-ranked automatic qualifiers (16-seed) and the four lowest-ranked at-large teams (usually 11 or 12-seeds) will play two games in what is known as “The First Four” on March 17 and 18. The winners of these games will then advance to the reduced 64-team bracket for the actual tournament.
“My favorite part of the tournament is definitely making the bracket to see what teams are advancing,” said senior David Jung.
Following last year’s champion, the University of Florida’s Gators, there are some favorite teams that fans are eagerly following. Both the University of Arizona Wildcats and the University of Michigan Wolverines, who are respectively ranked as first and second in ESPN’s Top 25 NCAA Men’s College Basketball Teams, are projected to come home as possible winners.
“Personally, I like Michigan more than Arizona. But I always feel like the teams that are projected to win don’t make it that far,” said senior Colin Das.
For the respective divisions, Covers.com, a sports-betting website, has gathered data based on betting odds to determine which teams fans are predicting to lead the four divisions. The projected No. 1 seeds are Duke University’s Blue Devils in the East, University of Houston’s Cougars in the South, the Wolverines in the Midwest, and the Wildcats in the West.
“In terms of the underdogs, I’m rooting for Miami or Ohio. But also, I like BYU because of AJ [a record-setting freshman forward for the Cougars] and Texas Tech,” said Das.
Beyond the teams themselves, many fans and NBA scouts pay close attention to the tournament to observe future draft prospects before the spring combines.
OA Boys Basketball seniors David Jung, Colin Das, and Justin Yoo are looking forward to watching players like the aforementioned AJ Dybantsa for BYU, Tamin Lipsey for Iowa State, and Tyler Tanner for Vanderbilt.
Place your bets for Selection Sunday, Patriots!
