Sixty four teams set high hopes entering this year’s March Madness
March Madness First round starts tomorrow with Minnesota vs Louisville at 9:15 a.m. The games will be broadcasted on the NCAA website.
March 20, 2019
Sixty-four teams. One dream.
It’s that time of the year. The biggest and most anticipated sports tournament is upon us. March Madness has finally arrived after a long wait.
March Madness is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Men’s basketball tournament that takes place at the end of March and also marks the end of the season. 64 teams are selected by a selection committee. From there they are divided into four regions and are seeded from one to sixteen. Each team advances to the next round if they win and keep on advancing until there are two battle-ready teams in the championship. If a team loses one game, their battle is over.
March Madness is always full of surprises and upsets. This year the Duke University Blue Devils come into the tourney as the number one team overall. They show off players like future NBA draft picks Zion Williamson, R.J Barrett and Cameron Reddish. The University of Virginia Cavalier enters the tournament as a number one seed team after being the first one seed to lose to a 16 seed in last year’s madness. They boast players such as Kyle Guy, Ty Jerome and De’Andre Hunter.
Another popular pick to win the title are the Gonzaga Bulldogs, who boast the best offense in the league with players like Rui Hachimura, Killian Tillie and Brandon Clarke.
Each year there is also a Cinderella team, otherwise known as a lower seeded team that makes it to the later rounds of the tournament. Last year’s Cinderella team was the 11-seed Loyola Chicago University Ramblers, who made it all the way to the final four. This year there are many candidates to be the next Cinderella team but each year it is always unpredictable. A few of the teams are the 12-seed Murray State Racers who are led by Ja Morant, one of the NCAA’s best players. There is also the 11-seed Belmont University Bruins, who have one of the best shooting teams in the country while committing the least amount of steals in the country.
Starting on Thursday, 64 teams will sound their battle horns, signaling that they are ready for what is yet to come in the gruesome battle that will follow in the craziest tournament of the year. March Madness.
