The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament is under way and like every year, the first weekend has given us a lot to talk about.
This year had the “Billion Dollar Challenge” presented by Warren Buffet, a contest that would give $1 billion to anyone in the world who could pick a perfect bracket. This is nearly an impossible feat. The odds of pulling off this minor miracle were calculated to be one in nine quintillion, which boils down to the equivalent of being struck by lightning 10 times or winning the lottery multiple times in a row. By those odds, you would actually be better off winning the lottery multiple times; the money would work out better that way.
Also, this year, like previous years, the first two rounds of the tournament were filled with upsets and surprises that would eliminate everyone who had entered the billion dollar contest. This is what fans love about March Madness, the unpredictability of the tournament prevents even experts of the sport to reconsider every choice they make.
I love March Madness for this simple reason: anything can happen the first weekend. Surprises this year, like Mercer University defeating perennial powerhouse Duke University in the first round of the tournament was the biggest bracket buster of them all. Of the 11 million entries into the challenge this was the one game that prevented most of the applicants from moving on. As someone who is not a, fan of Duke, I personally loved the result but that didn’t prevent me from choosing Duke to beat Mercer.
The other major surprise was University of Dayton upsetting Ohio State University. Although this wasn’t as big of a surprise as the Mercer-Duke game, it still upset a lot of fans who chose the Buckeyes to move on to the second round.
Many of the freshman standouts from this year were in the tournament with one last chance to impress the NBA scouts before declaring for the NBA draft in June. Although no freshman has officially declared yet, it is likely that stars like Jobari Parker of Duke University, Andrew Wiggins of the Kansas University, and Julius Randal of the University of Kentucky will be a few of the top picks in the draft likely to declare when the tournament is over.
Randal was the only one of the three still playing when his Wildcats upset the most popular team in the country, the Wichita State Shockers. Wichita State was undefeated in the season when they met up with Kentucky in the second round. Wiggins’ Jayhawks fell to the University of Stanford in the second round and Parker was a part of the Duke team that lost to Mercer in the first round.
Games like the Mercer vs. Duke are the reason offices around the country stop mid-afternoon on a Thursday or Friday, because of the unpredictableness that occurs every year. It is hard to get excited for something you know is going to happen, but in these games, there is no telling what may happen.
It’s lose and go home for every team that makes the tournament, so there is essentially nothing to lose for these mid-major schools. It is always better to be the underdog in these situations because you can do whatever it takes to try to win while the other team is doing whatever it takes not to lose. It is that tentativeness that prevents the bigger name schools from playing their best basketball.
Momentum also plays a big role for this tournament. Teams that get hot and on a role at this time of year always tend to succeed. In 2011, the University of Connecticut was not thought to play a major factor a few weeks going into the tournament, but a streak of wins in the conference tournament right before the “Big Dance,” gave the Huskies the momentum they needed to put together six wins in a row in route to the National Championship.
March Madness is the greatest sporting event of the year, better than the World Series, Kentucky Derby or Super Bowl. Not only does it take place over three weeks, but combined with the who-knows-what-could-happen mindset that it brings, it is the most exciting sporting event to watch. And, unlike the World Cup or Olympic games, the only other two sporting events that could rival March Madness, this tournament happens every year.
Every team and fan of those teams believes that they have a chance. Hope is a powerful motivator. It evens the playing field in the players’ minds, allowing them to play without concern or hesitation. There is no telling what lies ahead for each team but that’s what makes March Madness what it is.
