Eric Brodkin
Sports Editor
and Jenna Brodkin
Executive Sports Editor
March Madness is known for its exciting Cinderella stories, but there seems to be no excitement this year. The NCAA basketball tournament is a three week long event that includes the 64 best teams in Division One. About 24 million brackets are filled out across the world to see who can predict the winners of each game. This begs the question: is this year the most uneventful year yet?
“March is definitely the best month of the year just because of this tournament,” senior Dylan Fenton said. “The excitement of rooting for upsets and crazy buzzer-beaters is something you can’t find while watching other sports.”
However, the tournament has underperformed this year. Going into the Sweet 16, there are no Cinderella stories or “bracket busters”. According to USA Today, this is the first time since 1975 that the Sweet 16 features only teams from major conferences. Additionally, the Sweet 16 will have no team seeded No. 11 or higher, a first since 2007.
“I think the reason there’s a lack of upsets is because the top teams are just too good,” senior Jack Brooks said. “I have never seen teams this dominant and it is just hard to see them getting upset and losing early on in the tournament. Upsets are expected in March Madness so this is definitely something that we aren’t used to seeing.”
After the first two rounds, it is safe to say the tournament has been underwhelming compared to past years. However, with 16 teams left, anything could happen. Some viewers are banking on the top seed teams to win it all, while others are praying their lower seed team somehow pulls through. All 16 of these teams truly deserve to be there and have a strong chance of winning. Heavyweight battles will be expected as all of the remaining teams are must-watch TV.
“Even though there aren’t a ton of upsets, I know that the sweet 16 is going to be entertaining because everybody is so good and its honestly hard to tell at this moment who will come out on top,” Fenton said. “The main concern moving forward is hoping that this is just a special year. March is known for madness so I am confident it will come back next year.”
As much as we are hoping and praying for the magical Cinderella story to happen, both our brackets have a top seed or two seed winning. So is March really filled with Madness?
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