March Sadness
Early upsets send NCAA contenders home
From the announcement of the 68-team field on Selection Sunday until the champion cut down the nets at the Final Four in Houston, this past March arguably had the most madness ever.
Michigan State getting bounced by Middle Tennessee started the tournament out with a bang; Syracuse being the first 10 seed to reach the Final Four in tournament history. This being one year after a self-imposed ban held Syracuse from participating in the tournament. They certainly came back with vengeance after three seed Syracuse was eliminated by the 11 seed Dayton in the second round of the 2014 NCAA tournament. In this year’s tournament, they eliminated Dayton in the first round for some sweet revenge.
“The tournament is so exciting because every game is competitive,” junior Charlie Cousins said. “It’s not common to see a team breeze through to a championship.”
The championship came down to a match up of the number two seed Villi Nova matched up against number one seed North Carolina. North Carolina coming into the tournament as the number two overall seed was the slight favorite in the match up. But that didn’t matter to the hard fought Wildcats who eliminated the number one overall seed, Kansas, in the elite eight. Then followed the next week with a 95-51 demolition of Oklahoma and the Wooden Award winner, Buddy Hield.
On the other hand, North Carolina also won in blowout fashion over two seed Syracuse whose Cinderella story came crashing down.
The title game was back and forth from start to finish.
“I knew five minutes into the game that it was going to come down to the last basket,” sophomore Leonard Casem said.
It truly did come down to the final seconds. Senior at North Carolina, Marcus Paige, hits an absolute circus three to tie the game with seconds remaining. Moments later, Kris Jenkins of the Villi Nova Wildcats hits what could be one of the greatest shots in NCAA Championship history.