March Madness tournament update
March Madness tournament update
An overview of the bracket-breaking madness of this national college basketball tournament.
This week we approach a major milestone in the college basketball world. The last week of March this year marks the start of the round of sixteen for the NCAA basketball tournament, more commonly known as March Madness. Basketball fan or not, it’s hard to deny the amount of coverage and excitement that surrounds this part of the spring season.
After last night the field has been cut down to six teams, with games later today cutting the field down to four. This annual tournament brings a lot of excitement and comes along with a lot of storylines. Here is a rundown of what teams to be looking out for.
Two teams have officially reached the Final Four: the one seeded UConn and the four seeded Alabama. UConn, being one of the two one seeds remaining in the tournament, has been one of the fan favorites from the start. They won the national tournament last year, and by repeating they would become the first team to do so since Florida in 2006 and 2007. The Huskies knocked out the three seed Illinois in the last round by a strong 25 points, led by sophomore Donovan Clingan with 22 points.
The Alabama Crimson Tide are currently on a roll as they have knocked out one seed North Carolina and six seed Clemson in the previous two rounds. Alabama is led by senior guard Mark Sears, who leads the team with an average of just over 20 points per game, and a three-point percentage of over 40 percent. The Crimson Tide’s recent win over the Clemson Tigers led to the very first semifinal appearance in school history for Alabama.
Two more elite games are yet to be played later this afternoon. The first of these games is between four seeded Duke and eleven seeded North Carolina State. The second game is between one seeded Purdue and two seeded Tennessee. After this weekend all Final Four teams will be decided with semi-final matchups beginning on Saturday, April 6.
The national championship will then follow on Monday, April 8. In late March and early April anything can happen, as this tournament always promises excitement.