March Madness Preview

The yearly college basketball tournament is on track to live up to the hype

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(Graphic by Aaron Propst)

In the month of March, the highly anticipated college basketball tournament, March Madness, is held. 

Fans around the world deem this as one of the most unpredictable sports tournaments. 

68 of the best college basketball teams all compete in an epic tournament full of upsets, star players, and surprises. 

During the tournament, many prospects get their names out there with high quality performances. 

 This tournament is so unpredictable that the odds to correctly pick every game correctly is one in nine quintillion.  

Roughly 70 million brackets are created each year and a perfect bracket still has not been predicted. 

This year there is no clear best team, but how important is being a one seed? 

In the last five college basketball seasons, all five champions have been a one seed. 

“I think Kansas has a very good shot at repeating, they have really good guard play,” Assistant Principal Jason Ito said. 

“But I would love to see USC make the tournament, they’re on the bubble right now, so I will be rooting for USC and Kansas.” 

Kansas is led by Jalen Wilson and superstar freshman Gradey Dick. 

In the Big 12 conference, Kansas has proved every game that they deserve to be at the top. 

Kansas has a fantastic resume as they have notable wins include wins against Texas, Baylor, and TCU.

Houston has had a tremendous season, racking up some incredible resume-boosting wins en route to being the overall one seed. 

This includes wins over Saint Mary’s and Virginia.

Guard Marcus Sasser leads the Houston Cougars with 17 points and 6 assists, but questions linger on the legitimacy of Houston’s 27-2 record as they are not in that strong of a conference. 

Alabama has been in the mainstream of college basketball headlines coming into March. 

Brandon Miller, superstar Alabama forward, has made the headlines with his off court actions, as he has been accused of involvement in a murder. 

In the midst of this controversy, Miller’s performance hasn’t seemed to be impacted, as he has been performing at a National Player of the Year level, like in a 41 point game at South Carolina. 

Another spectacular team through the course of the season has been UCLA. 

UCLA has always been a strong basketball school, and they are looking to win it all this year. 

In 2021, UCLA had an improbable Cinderella run to the final four. 

They have proved big wins are not far-fetched for their program, as they have won 11 national championships in their history.

There are some other teams to keep an eye out for in this tournament. 

Gonzaga is always a threat and they look to finally get over the hump and win it all. 

Oral Roberts, who made a run to the sweet 16 just two years ago, has an incredible scorer in Max Abmas leading them to another great season. 

North Carolina, the preseason number one overall, has fallen all the way to out of the tournament, and will need to win multiple games in a row to get back into March madness. 

Many fans believe a run in the ACC tournament, will help their case in getting in the big dance. 

Notable bubble teams, or teams on the brink of being in or being out, include Clemson, North Carolina, Arizona State, Michigan, and Auburn.

So, who do you have winning it all this year?