March Madness or March Sadness

By: Giorgio Fabiano (’24)

It is that time of year, the greatest playoff tournament out of all sports. The NCAA basketball tournament consists of a field of 64 teams, and 4 more teams that have a play-in game. The first day of play in games is on March 19th and the second day is March 20th. After the play-in game winners are decided, the first round of the tournament will be played. The Michigan State Spartans will take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs as the first game of the 2024 tournament at 12:15pm on March 21st. Teams are seeded 1-16, with 4 teams per ranking. The four number 1 seeds are Uconn, Houston, UNC, and Purdue. They are the juggernauts of the tournament and are seen as the ones that will win. There is a reason it is called March Madness, there is always some team ranked at the bottom that has a historic run in the tournament, they are called a Cinderella story. An example of this is in 2022 a small school called Saint Peters, a 15 seed, won 3 games and made it to the Elite 8 of the tournament. This year there are a few matchups that could have upsets. Oakland University and James Madison could upset their opponents in the first round. Those Cinderella runs will eventually end, and they will fall to one of the juggernauts. This year is a great year for college basketball and the tournament should be a lot of fun to watch. Make sure to pay attention and watch the March Madness tournament.