This NCAA Tournament won’t be forgotten
NCAA men’s basketball is the most popular thing talked about throughout March. Every March, every sports fan is reminded how the NCAA Tournament is one of, if not the best event in sports.
The excitement from every fanbase, everyone filling out brackets and the fantastic games are a treat. Packing 68 teams into one giant tournament is a recipe for thrill. But this year’s tournament, after just one weekend, has been bizarre.
Obviously UMBC becoming the first men’s 16-seed to defeat a 1-seed is the big story, but it’s been more than that. It is absurd that they handily took down the nation’s best team.
A Virginia team that lost just one ACC game, which has never been done, and then ran through the conference tournament. The country’s best defense yet they couldn’t stop a UMBC team that only made the tournament due to a buzzer beater in their conference title game? It makes no sense.
However the rest of the weekend was also wild. The 16 teams that made it to the second weekend are one of the most random groups of teams the tournament has seen.
That’s the beauty of this tournament. These final 16 teams are not the best 16 teams in college basketball this season. But the tournament doesn’t care what happened during the regular season.
Powerhouses and Final Four favorites like North Carolina and Arizona got obliterated.
Michigan hitting a miracle three pointer at the buzzer in a game that they had no right winning thanks to three missed free throws in the final ten seconds.
Ohio teams Cincinatti and Xavier absolutely choked away games. Cincinatti somehow blew a 22 point lead in the final ten minutes. Xavier let a ten point lead vanish in the final minutes after four turnovers in five possessions.
The 11 seeds Syracuse and Loyola-Chicago showing that defense can win games no matter how ugly, slow and bad you play. Yet Virginia showed maybe that’s not the case.
Deandre Ayton, Trae Young, Mo Bamba and more potential top-10 draft picks showed that one-and-done’s may not be good for a team’s success.
It’s been a wild tournament after just one weekend. It’s easy to say it won’t be forgotten, even though it most likely will be when next year’s tournament begins.
I think this weekend’s games will get things back to normal, but you never know. It’s safe to say the UMBC win will be a staple for time and will make this 2018 tournament always remembered.
