NCAA Touranment first weekend anaylsis

Keenan Ingram

Blog post 3

March 19, 2018

Every year in March we have the much-anticipated NCAA tournament also referred to as "March madness". Tournament of 68 D1 schools have a chance to compete for a chance to win a national championship. Every year people in America including myself fills out a tournament bracket predicting what teams we think we win there matchups and advance to each round to a eventual champion. Every year we have what we call is upsets when a lower rank seed or even a smaller school at times beats the bigger name school.  It happens every single tournament when a highly rank seeded school gets beat by a lower rank school or a smaller ranked school. It unpredictable which adds to the intensity of March madness part of the reason people tune in to it so see what will happen.

This year first weekend of the NCAA tournament is like every year where a bunch of upsets happens, and different Cinderella's appear. Some of the big powerhouse schools like UNC, Michigan State Xavier Wichita state and some other big schools also lost which happens from time to time. We had every seed get upset before in first two rounds from the 2-8 seeds getting beat by a lower seed that is seeded 9-15 happens every year that's normal. But what was special about this year first weekend was the most historic loss in NCAA history the unthinkable happen on Friday night March 16th in Charlotte, NC. Virginia was the overall number 1 seed in the NCAA tournament with a record of 31-2 playing against the 16th seed UMBC retrievers from Baltimore county in the first round. Now history before this night 1 seeds were 135-0 in the first round winning that round by a average of 24 points per game. UMBC defeat that logic and shocked the world when they upset Virginia in dominating fashion winning 74-54 being the first 16 seed to beat a 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Now for Virginia fans it was heartbreaking to be a part of the most historic loss in NCAA history. But for people that watched the game witness it and UMBC team and their fans just shows the beauty of the tournament. Shows the world that in the NCAA tournament every team has a equal chance no matter the seed they are placed at. Even if the underdog isn't given a chance by people to win when they step on the court they have a chance to prove people wrong and shock the world. This year tournament will be more memorable then other just by the simple fact that history was made indeed the Friday night of March 16^th.

 Now in my opinion being a college basketball fan and a sports my favorite time of the year is March madness time. The being on the edge of your seat ballgames to seeing if your team will advance and the agony of defeat, including the excitement of a victory. I feel there's nothing that compares to them 3-4 weeks of the NCAA tournament and the thrill of seeing these teams. Upsets in my opinion is good for NCAA tournament its gets more people intrigued and also you get a chance to see a underdog have a magical run and some new team come onto the scene. The Tournament and the fact that there are some top teams that lose bring in more and more viewers to wanting to witness history and see something amazing happen. There is more parody in College basketball which helps the game continue to evolve.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkay/2018/03/19/ncaa-tournament-sweet-16-bracket-updated-march-madness-2018-schedule-results-odds-and-pro-picks/#660398c52fb5