The first week of March Madness was surely a hit with tons of upsets and wins.
The first week of March Madness kicked off with many surprises in place that fans weren't expecting on their brackets. Since Selection Sunday, 68 teams were selected to play in the tournament and it was decided which games would be played on what days. The number 1-seeds are determined based on who had the best record of the season in their region. Following that criteria, they were the Auburn Tigers, the Duke Blue Devils, the Houston Cougars, and the Florida Gators. After the number 1-seeds are determined, they announce the next 11 seeds in the tournament. Once all is settled is when the real fun begins: let's play ball! The week started off with several games already being played on March 20th and March 21st.
One of the most talked about topics was a major upset between Clemson and McNeese that no one saw coming, and leading tons of people to say goodbye to perfect brackets. According to the NCAA on March 24th, only 81 of 34 million currently had a perfect bracket. The number 5th seeded Clemson fought hard against the 12th seeded McNeese, but the Tigers came up short, with a 69-67 victory in favor of the Cowboys. This was the teams first NCAA tournament victory with so much excitement coming from the athletes, along with a special student manager named Amir Khan that had a viral moment leading up to March Madness. When the Cowboys won the game, a video from social media showed the players and Amir walking into the locker room as he held a boombox and rapped to a song in celebration of the win. Because of his viral moment, he is the first known basketball manager to receive a NIL deal with sponsorships from Buffalo Wild Wings, TickPick and Insomnia Cookies.
McNeese wasn't the only major upset for people's brackets, another memorable being Louisville against Creighton. As related by ESPN, this game was listed as one of their top bracket busters after the Bluejays won 89-75, which knocked out 13,339,089 brackets. Player Jamiya Neal even scored a career high 29 points and had 12 rebounds, as he helped the 9th seeded team defeat the 8th seeded Cardinals. This would be the Bluejays 5th consecutive March Madness opener win, along with notably beating a team ranked in the top 10 for the second time this season.
Going back to Selection Sunday, a lot of the seeded picks were based off of a teams record and how their overall season went. For St. John's for example, they had a pretty good season as they were selected to be 2nd seeded, then proceeded to win their opener game against the Omaha Mavericks 83-53. Things seemed to be going their way until the 10th seeded Arkansas Razorbacks stepped onto the court and caused an upset against the Red Storm on a final score of 75-66.
As March Madness continues, you never truly know what will happen in play which is a main appeal for fans. From Selection Sunday predictions to seeing what actually happens on the court is exactly what puts the Madness in March Madness. There's still more to come for the rest of the month as teams work their way to April 7th’s championship game. With all the upsets and shocking events from the tournament, you'll certainly want to keep a closer eye on your bracket.
Edited by Elsa Olano
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