NCAA March Madness

NCAA March Madness
The NCAA’s March Madness tournament began on March 15 and ended on April 4. The NCAA’s national tournament is a combination of the 64 best teams in the USA and they are put in a bracket and play in a single-game elimination tournament which means that they have one game to win or lose and the winner moves on. Click here for a full bracket with seedings and scores (via ncaa.com). March Madness is known for its madness regarding close, fun, and sometimes heartbreaking endings to games making it extremely difficult for sports bettors to create a perfect bracket. No one has ever had a perfect bracket due to the 1 in 120.2 billion chance to be the one to do so. Number one seeds Houston, Alabama, Purdue, and Kansas had the best odds to win the tournament.
The BIGGEST upset this year was Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) which was a number 16 seed upsetting number one seed Purdue which is the second number 16 seed upset in NCAA March Madness history with the University of Maryland, Baltimore Country. There were a total of seven upsets in the first round (out of 32 games). There were three upsets (out of 16 games) in the second round including the upset of Arkansas (8 seed) over Kansas (1 seed). In the Sweet Sixteen (last 16 teams remaining) there were four upsets out of eight games including Gonzaga upsetting UCLA and number one seeds Houston and Alabama were upset making it the first time that the Elite Eight has no remaining number one seed.
The Elite Eight contained Florida Atlantic University, Kansas State University, University of Connecticut, Gonzaga University, San Diego State University, Creighton University, Miami University, and Texas University. Florida Atlantic and Kansas State fought in a close game that ended in an FAU win to take them to their first final-four appearance. Connecticut blew out Gonzaga and held star Drew Timme to twelve points compared to a thirty-six-point performance against UCLA. SDSU beat Creighton by one point to go to their first-ever final four. Miami also punched their ticket to their first final four.
The Final Four contained FAU, UConn, SDSU, and Miami. In the SDSU and FAU game, it was 71-70 in FAU’s favor and Lamont Butler of SDSU hit a game-winning buzzer-beater to send SDSU to their first-ever National Championship game. In the second game between UConn and Miami, UConn won 72-59. UConn went to its first national championship since 1999 and looked to make their record 5-0 in national championship games.
In the National Championship game between SDSU and UConn, UConn won a good game 76-59. Led by Triston Newton brought UConn their fifth national championship and UConn is still undefeated in national championship games. CONGRATULATIONS TO THE MEN’S UCONN BASKETBALL TEAM