There is something to March Madness that separates it from every other sporting event in that you never know who will end up winning each game, specially when we're talking about the first two rounds. This year was no exception when it comes to surprises, we saw a ton of upsets this tournament, some greater than others but in the end no one's bracket was found unharmed by the many surprises that have hit us this year. This is the beauty of March Madness though, the fact that you never know what is going to happen, you never know who is going to show up and who is going to play the worst game of their lives, the pressure upon these young men is overwhelming and so nervous shoots and bad calls are to be expected, some of which might even cost a game. Now we could talk about the girls as well, but let us be honest here for a second, the way Baylor is playing this year, being undefeated and all, it just seems like an obvious guess on who will win, or at least get to the final, so it is different in that there is little mystery behind who will reach the end.
If we counted correctly there were about 10 upsets so far, that is a lot of upsets, and two of those surprised us all, the last time a team placed at 15 beat a 2 was about 11 years ago. This tournament we had two teams do this and not against small fish but two very large and talented fish, we're obviously talking about the Lehigh vs Duke and Norfolk vs Missouri games. Who would have thought that Duke would be out on the first round? This is unheard of and to get out by Lehigh at that, it surprised us all. We feel for Lehigh though, regardless of their loss to Xavier they are walking home as champions, for not only did they go farther than ever before but they beat Duke in the process, that is something any emerging basketball team should be proud of. We could say the same about Norfolk, here is a program that keeps pushing every year and this year it knocked over a giant, Florida did defeat you, but your previous victory is commendable indeed. Both these games were awesome games to watch, both had us intrigued, and both destroyed all brackets in existence.
For those not in the know, it is tradition that every year people all over the United States come together and make their predictions for the tournament or "pick their brackets". These are generally done among friends or colleges as a competition, for some money is even involved, hence the big deal about some people and their brackets. We've always found it amusing how even those that do not place bets take their brackets being right so seriously, it is a fun tradition, one that has been around for a long time now. Generally everyone's bracket is based on their experience from watching the teams play over the season and generally this experience counts for something, hence why this year being filled with upsets destroys everyone's brackets. Sports Center said something like out of the 1.5 million brackets within their network that none survived this weekend, there will be no perfect brackets this year it seems.
After the Super Bowl, March Madness is the second most watched tournament in the United States (disputed by the lovers of the World Series), here we have the top college teams from around the country facing each other to prove who is the best. It isn't a perfect tournament but it is one of the most fun tournaments to watch, even more so than the NBA finals, the reason behind this is simple, the college players play their very best all the time, they have to play their best all the time in order to get recruited to the NBA, which means that all games are fun to watch, even those that have teams you don't like. March Madness this year is proving to be very interesting indeed, we can't wait to see what surprises await us this coming weekend.
We hope those returning from spring break were safe and had a good time, for those recovering from St Patrick's day we pray you recover well, and for those that had a restful weekend we pray this week will continue to be as restful.
Love from your humble blogger,
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