A March Full of Madness
The NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments always draw a lot of attention during the month of March. It’s a time for fans to come together and support their schools, but also a time for many who do not follow college basketball regularly to enjoy this time of year through the bracket challenge. This year has been incredibly unique for both the men’s and women’s tournaments, resulting in many peoples’ brackets being busted.
For the men’s tournament, there have been a multitude of upsets that very few expected. Since the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, the Final Four teams have included at least one team that was either a 1 seed, 2 seed, or 3 seed. 2023 was the first year since then that this was not the case. 4 UConn, 5 San Diego State, 5 Miami, and 9 Florida Atlantic will be the final four teams that will be playing in Houston this weekend for a National Championship appearance. All of those except UConn are playing in their first final four in school history. All four No. 1 seeds also got eliminated before the Elite Eight, including Purdue losing to Fairleigh Dickinson in the first round. Purdue’s loss was the 2nd time in NCAA tournament history where a 16 seed defeated a 1 seed. Major programs like Duke, Kansas, and Kentucky all failed to reach the Sweet 16 and North Carolina failed to make the tournament. The significance of this is that every men’s Sweet 16 has featured at least one of these four schools from 1980-2019. This streak ended in 2021, but it happened again in 2023 which also shocked many. Kansas in particular, was a 1 seed in this year's tournament.
While the women’s tournament may not be as chaotic as the men’s with all the upsets with all four teams playing in the Final Four being seeded 1-3, there were still some historic elements. In women’s college basketball, UConn, Tennessee, and Stanford are widely regarded as powerhouses. UConn head coach Geno Auriemma has guided his team to 15 consecutive final fours prior to this year. A historic streak of dominance in Connecticut had been put to an end after their Sweet 16 loss to Ohio State last Saturday. This is the first final four in the 21st century to not feature any of these teams in it. Undefeated 1 South Carolina, 2 Iowa, 3 LSU, and 1 Virginia Tech will be playing this weekend in Dallas for an appearance in the National Championship. Indiana and Stanford, who were also 1 seeds in the tournament, both which I picked to make my final four also both lost in the 2nd round of the tournament. Incredible performances from Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, the likely National Player of the Year, have been another awesome highlight of this tournament to follow. One of which came in the Elite Eight vs Louisville which had 2.5 million viewers on ESPN, more than any NBA game on ESPN during the 2022-23 season. This is a massive win for women’s basketball as a whole.
Although this is a tournament of many firsts and unexpected outcomes, that’s the beauty of this time of year. Generally speaking, I don’t find it fun when I go to a movie knowing how it will end or going into a magic show knowing the magic trick. That analogy also applies to March Madness in terms of knowing what’s going to happen. I may have been wrong like many others in my brackets, but can I really be mad about it? With incredible stories like 15th seeded Princeton who made a run to the Sweet 16 as well as FAU’s run to the Final Four, those are examples of teams that won over the hearts of many. On the women’s side, South Carolina will be going for its first undefeated season in program history. It’s stories like these that make the month of March so memorable in the sports world. The National Championship for the women’s tournament is Sunday, April 2 while the men’s is Monday, April 3. Whatever the outcomes end up being, the 2023 NCAA Tournaments will be looked back on as ones to truly remember.