March Madness Has Been More Than Madness!!! 

by Ryan ‘Turbo’ Jackson

Okay college basketball fans, let’s all take a collective breath. Now that we have all gathered our bearings, I think it is time to take a look back at this year’s tournament and appreciate how amazing it has been as well as the entire season. We have seen upsets galore, new darlings arise, and witnessed one of the most unpredictable seasons that I can remember.

Let’s take a step back and just realize what we have witnessed this season. Coach K’s last season at the helm, a returning champion in Baylor go into the tournament with a chance to repeat. We saw the slap heard round the college basketball world, and the BIG10 send a ton of teams into the tournament. We also saw a TON of teams sit atop the poll and not a single team take control, or even a couple teams dominate like we have seen in the past. There was not a clear cut favorite, in my opinion, going into the tournament. We can dive into why that exactly is in my eyes in a whole other article but briefly I think it has a lot to do with NIL deals, the transfer portal, and a ton of up-and-coming new coaches. Is this good for basketball?  gain, we will get into that later. LOL!

One of the biggest draws to the tournament is the hopes that a Cinderella team or teams comes out of nowhere and captivates us and earns our love. We have seen teams like Gonzaga, yes Gonzaga was once a Cinderella team, Florida Gulf Coast, and even Davidson with a young Steph Curry made a run out of nowhere in the tournament. This year we saw Saint Peter’s take down a blue blood team in Kentucky in the first round. This Kentucky team was a number 2 seed and a lot of people picked them to win the entire tournament. This team was very special this year and not only because of an amazing mustache. They caught fire and every team they came up against just couldn’t put them away until they ran into an even hotter team in North Carolina. Even though Saint Peters’ completely ruined my bracket they were a ton of fun to watch. They made history in becoming the first 15 seed to make it to the Elite 8.

So now we are down to the Final 4. With all of the parity this season, we are left with four blue blood teams in Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, and Villanova. Believe it or not, as long and heated that the Duke-UNC rivalry has been this is the first time they have ever met in the tournament and rightfully so, in Coach K’s final season. If you remember back a few weeks UNC went into Cameron Indoor and beat Duke in Coach K’s final home game. Wouldn’t it be something if they also ended Coach K’s final season? On the other side we might have a match up that pits the two best coaches going right now in Bill Self for Kansas and Jay Wright for Villanova. This game is going to feature two teams that are extremely similar and could possibly be the best game of the two.  

So in an unpredictable season one could say that the Final 4 is boring. I disagree. I think we are in store for three games to wrap up this amazing season that are going to blow our minds. I personally can’t wait for Saturday and Monday in hopes to see some amazing basketball. I have a feeling you have read this long to get my picks. Give me a UNC-Kansas final with Kansas bringing home the hardware!