March Mad­ness is Back

MISHAWAKA—Af­ter two years of not hav­ing a tra­di­tional march mad­ness tour­na­ment, bas­ket­ball has of­fi­cially re­turned to nor­mal. In 2019, the tour­na­ment was can­celled due to the COVID-19 pan­demic. Then in 2020, we did not have crowds be­cause of the pan­demic. So, in 2021, it was, and has been, re­fresh­ing to see peo­ple at march mad­ness games once again.

On Mar. 13, the field of 68 was so­lid­i­fied. From con­fer­ence tour­na­ments to at-large bids, every­thing was set. The first four games took place in Day­ton, Oh. On Mar. 16, the first two teams, Texas A&M-Cor­pus Christi and Texas South­ern, faced off for the right to play the No. 1 seed, Kansas. Texas South­ern pulled away late for a 76-67 vic­tory. The next game that night was In­di­ana against Wyoming. They played for a chance to face Saint Mary’s. In­di­ana held off the Cow­boys for a 66-58 vic­tory and re­turned to the big dance for the first time in six years. The next night we saw Wright State hold off Bryant with a 93-82 vic­tory. Lastly, we saw one of the best games of the tour­na­ment in which the Notre Dame Fight­ing Irish pulled off a dou­ble over­time vic­tory over the Rut­gers Scar­let Knights in an 89-87 vic­tory.

Now that the Round of 64 was set, it was of­fi­cially March Mad­ness. The No. 1 over­all team in the tour­na­ment, the Gon­zaga Bull­dogs, got pushed for thirty min­utes against the No. 16 seed, Geor­gia State, be­fore pulling away late with a 93-72 win. In the same re­gion, we saw a pair of dou­ble-digit up­sets in the form of No. 12 New Mex­ico State tak­ing down the No. 5 UConn (Con­necti­cut) Huskies 70-63. We also saw the No. 11 Notre Dame Fight­ing Irish con­tinue their March run with a 78-64 win over the No. 6 Al­abama Crim­son Tide. 

In the East Re­gion, we saw every­thing go sta­tus quo un­til one of the fa­vorites of the tour­na­ment, the No. 2 Ken­tucky Wild­cats, fell to the No. 15 Saint Pe­ter’s Pea­cocks, and for the sec­ond straight year, we saw a Cin­derella run from a 15 seed. In the South Re­gion, we saw one of the ques­tion marks of the tour­na­ment pull off an up­set. Go­ing into the tour­na­ment, the Michi­gan Wolver­ines were 17-14, and many peo­ple ques­tioned why they were se­lected to make the tour­na­ment. De­spite those doubts, the Wolver­ines proved they be­longed and erased a dou­ble-digit deficit to up­set No. 6 Col­orado State. Lastly, in the Mid­west Re­gion, we saw a plethora of dou­ble-digit seeds win. No. 12 Rich­mond knocked out one of the hottest teams go­ing into the tour­na­ment, the No. 5 Iowa Hawkeyes, in a 67-63 vic­tory. We saw both No. 11 Iowa State and No. 10 Mi­ami Hur­ri­canes pull off close vic­to­ries over the No. 6 LSU Tigers and the No. 7 USC Tro­jans.

In the Round of 32 we only saw one re­gion go “chalk,” mean­ing that all four top seeds ad­vanced. That was in the West Re­gion where No. 1 Gon­zaga, No. 2 Duke, No. 3 Texas Tech and No. 4 Arkansas all ad­vanced. De­spite ad­vanc­ing, all four saw a chal­lenge from lower seeds. Gon­zaga was threat­ened by No. 9 Mem­phis, Duke was chal­lenged by No. 7 Michi­gan State, Texas Tech nar­rowly beat No. 11 Notre Dame and Arkansas pulled away late against No. 12 New Mex­ico State. 

In the East Re­gion, the No. 1 seed fell, the Bay­lor Bears, and the Cin­derella story con­tin­ued. The Bay­lor Bears ral­lied from down twenty to force over­time against No. 8 North Car­olina be­fore run­ning out of steam and los­ing 93-86. No. 15 Saint Pe­ter’s pushed past No. 7 Mur­ray State to ad­vance to the Sweet 16. Both No. 3 Pur­due and No. 4 UCLA made their way to the Sweet 16 as ex­pected. In the South Re­gion, the top two seeds ad­vanced; both No. 1 Ari­zona and No. 2 Vil­lanova made their way into the Sweet 16. Other top seeds did not find their way so eas­ily; No. 4 Illi­nois fell to No. 5 Hous­ton in blowout fash­ion, 68-53. Then No. 11 Michi­gan found a way past No. 3 Ten­nessee, 76-68. Lastly in the Mid­west Re­gion, we saw chaos. Al­though both No. 1 Kansas and No. 4 Prov­i­dence found no strug­gles in their sec­ond-round games, both No. 2 Auburn and No. 3 Wis­con­sin saw their tour­na­ment run end at the hands of a pair of dou­ble-digit seeds. No. 11 Iowa State and No. 10 Mi­ami pushed past two top seeds to so­lid­ify an Elite 8 berth for a dou­ble-digit seed.

So, on Mar. 20, the Sweet 16 had been set. In the West Re­gion, No. 1 Gon­zaga faced off against No. 4 Arkansas. Arkansas knocked off Gon­zaga 74-68. On the other side we saw No. 2 Duke against No. 3 Texas Tech. Duke con­tin­ued their ad­vance in the tour­na­ment with a 78-73 vic­tory. In the East Re­gion, No. 8 North Car­olina went toe to toe with No. 4 UCLA. The Tar Heels pulled off the up­set, 73-66. 

In the bot­tom part of the East Re­gion, the Cin­derella story con­tin­ued against No. 3 Pur­due. The fif­teen seeded St. Pe­ter’s Pea­cocks be­came the first fif­teen seed to ad­vance to the Elite Eight with a 67-64 win. On the other side of the bracket, No. 1 Ari­zona faced off against No. 5 Hous­ton and Hous­ton knocked off Ari­zona and left the Kansas Jay­hawks as the lone one seed stand­ing with a 72-60 win over Ari­zona. The other Sweet 16 matchup in the South re­gion saw the No. 2 Vil­lanova Wild­cats face off against the No. 11 Michi­gan Wolver­ines. The Wolver­ines saw their mag­i­cal tour­na­ment run with a 63-55 de­feat. In the fi­nal re­gion, the Mid­west, the No. 1 Kansas Jay­hawks took down the No. 4 Prov­i­dence Fri­ars 66-61, and the No. 10 Mi­ami (FL) Hur­ri­canes took town the No. 11 Iowa State Cy­clones, 70-56.

The Elite Eight was played on Mar. 26 and Mar. 27 and saw two of the heavy fa­vorites ad­vance to the Fi­nal Four with No. 2 Duke and No. 2 Vil­lanova ad­vanc­ing in their re­spected re­gions. The No. 2 Duke Blue Dev­ils cruised to a 78-69 vic­tory over No. 4 Arkansas in Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s fi­nal tour­na­ment run. No. 2 Vil­lanova ad­vanced to the Fi­nal Four in a de­fen­sive bat­tle against the No. 5 Hous­ton Cougars with a 50-44 win. The next day, we saw a pair of blowouts. In the first matchup, No. 1 Kansas raced past No. 10 Mi­ami in the sec­ond half to ad­vance with a 76-50 win. In the sec­ond matchup, we saw the Cin­derella story end with No. 8 North Car­olina blitz­ing No. 15 Saint Pe­ter’s, 69-49.

With that, the Fi­nal Four is set. It will be played on Apr. 2 in New Or­leans. On one side, No. 2 Duke will face off against No. 8 North Car­olina. This will be a very an­tic­i­pated matchup be­cause it will be the fi­nal time that Coach K will face off against North Car­olina. Ear­lier this sea­son, he saw his Blue Dev­ils fall in his fi­nal game in Cameron In­door Sta­dium, 94-81. On the other hand, No. 1 Kansas will square off against No. 2 Vil­lanova. This will see two of the more dom­i­nant teams in the tour­na­ment face off. Both teams have won all their games by more than five points.