March Madness. The one time of the year when kings can be dethroned and Cinderella stories come true. On the first day of the tournament Princeton, who barely qualified in a weak conference, upset the two-seed Arizona 59-55 and burnt my and most other people’s bracket to a crisp. Princeton was the only team that was seeded above nine to make it to the sweet sixteen this year and they were seeded 15. After the first day, there were already no perfect brackets remaining. 

The Final Four teams this year were unexpected by almost everybody in America. In the Southeast, Florida Atlantic University was set to play San Diego St. In the Midwest/West half, UConn played the only ACC team left, Miami. With these longshot teams making it this far, only six people in the world correctly predicted these teams in the Final Four. FAU was one of the highest seeds to ever make it that far and because of this underdog story, FAU was the fan favorite against San Diego St. However, even with this extra support San Diego St defeated the Owls in a 72-71 win. On the contrary, the Miami v. UConn game wasn’t as close when UConn blew the doors off of Miami, tearing apart the last hope of the ACC. 

And then there were two. The giant, UConn faced off against San Diego St. Sadly the big game wasn’t as fun to watch as all of the others, as Goliath put David back in his place. UConn won 76-51. 

UConn was a monster during this year’s tournament. They beat every single team that they played by at least 15 points showing that they are the kings of the NCAA. Thanks to all of the attention they are getting, I can see UConn attracting the best high school ballers from all over the world to feed the monster of a team. 

March is a special time of the year for basketball. If you look around a classroom during March you’ll see at least two or three people watching the tournament live to try and keep up with their bracket since most games air during the school day. Some of my teachers, like in PE, have the games up on the active board live and other teachers don’t even let me check the score. But for some others, there’s always a will and a way to watch these games on their laptop with a VPN or sneaking it on their phones under their lap. 

During March anything can happen but as this month closed, our new king of the NCAA, UConn, has claimed their throne.