March Madness

Though I know I’m reading this article quite late, I just want to say, “Wow!” This year especially, March Madness has definitely lived up to its name, with astounding results that no one, out of millions, could even predict, not even professionals. I mean, even in the article, “Analysis of Each Region,” it showed how Virginia would have a tough road ahead with No. 2 Cincinnati and No. 4 Arizona, yet Virginia lost the first round to a 16 seed. That’s some interesting history made, as it was the first time a 16 seed ever beat a 1 seed, and as well, probably the biggest bracket buster as well. In addition, March Madness isn’t even over yet, however, I feel it as already given me, as well as many others, enough thrilling action to last a century. And with an 11 seed, Loyola-Chicago, still remaining in the Final four, I can assure you their is much more excitement to come, and honestly, I couldn’t be any more anxious to see what awaits.

Part 1: So first of all, March Madness is my jam, I love it so much. Ever since early November when the regular season starts, I am so hyped for March. I have been filling out brackets since middle school in 6th grade and I have been doing it ever since. It's so fun to join different bracket groups on ESPN and the March Madness app. I really enjoy competing with other people to see whose bracket will be the most busted and who's will be the best. I am a Duke fan, yes whoever is reading this will probably say "ew" because you sll hate Duke, but I am a proud one. Every single one of my friends do not like Duke and they say that Duke is bad and everything. Even when I am wearing a sweatshirt and at school, random students will say to me "Duke is bad". Everyone criticizes me for liking Duke. They ESPECIALLY criticize me about my favorite player, Grayson Allen. Sometimes I let that get to me and other times I don't. But that will definitely not change my liking of my team. People call me a bandwagon for liking Duke and I really don't like that. So let's clear that up right now: I have a legitiment reason for liking Duke. Long story short, I had a tumor in my lip that was serious and my parents have been taking me to the Duke hospital and the tumor went away. Duke saved my life.

March madness always excites me every year from creating brackets, rooting for my favorite team, and experiencing amazing upsets. I have loved basketball all of my life, it has always been a part of me. I just love watching people use new strategies and skills to compete against other teams. This year was my first year filling out a bracket for march madness. It was really fun picking and choosing teams to win and asking my friends their opinions about which teams should win. Sports have always been exciting and thrilling to watch whether it be football, basketball, soccer, or baseball. Of course I’m rooting for my home team the North Carolina Tar Heels. My dad has loved them ever since he was little and as I was growing up he was always watching Tyler Hansbrough and talking about how I could be him one day. I didn’t start loving sports until only a few years ago but as soon as I did I was a die hard Tar Heels fan overnight. I loving sitting on the couch watching and discussing every move with my dad. It’s a great bonding experience for him and I. I hope Carolina wins this year, they had a great win last year so that my dad and I can celebrate and wake up the whole neighborhood just like last year.

I've done the March Madness Bracket Challenge with friends over the past couple of years and it never turns out the way I've predicted it. This year in particular, I had Virginia in the Final Four and North Carolina winning the whole shebang. After this past weekend, my bracket was destroyed by teams I've never heard of, terrible blowouts, and crazy buzzer beaters. It's March Madness for a reason; which, is one thing I fail to understand year after year. I always predict the higher ranked team winning the majority of the games with only one or two upsets, yet I'm always proven wrong. The Cinderella story always finds a way to mess up what I had planned. This year is definitely up for grabs. Deep inside, I agree with Josh Nagel in that Duke has the best team and is the biggest threat to win it all; yet, I could definitely be wrong. If this year has proved anything to me it is that anybody can be beat on any given day. Virginia, being the favor to win it all by experts and millions of others, were quickly eliminated by a county team. This being said, I believe Texas A&M could win it all with their lineup of two 6'10" forwards, but they might not. The championship is up for grabs and the better team day in and day out is going to win. At this point, the world is wondering, who will it be?

This 2018 NCAA March Madness has been full of amazing wins and disappointing upsets. As many people pick Virginia or UNC to win it all, most brackets are now busted. I do not follow basketball closely, I know as much as the common person. So, my bracket was not going to get far anyways. I have a place in my heart for Nova. I can't wait to see who will win this year!

Picking a NCAA March Madness Bracket is something I do every year. At first I say "I don't really care, I'll just do it because everyone else is." But then I go all in, keeping up with every game, submitting my bracket to multiple websites, and even putting money down sometimes. I never go insane over my bracket but I always want to win. And I realized the strategy to do it: be super lucky. Sure there is some skill involved in the picking, like knowing who is hot at the moment, but overall it's all luck. My best bracket that I ever had was one that I fully picked in about 45 seconds. No thought. And that is why I like to read articles like N.C.A.A. Tournament Bracket: Analysis of Each Region, the authors always come off as confident in their picks and they seem to have all the answers, but nobody has the answers. In the article they say that "The Region of Death" is Kansas, Duke and Michigan State, in the midwest, the authors say that the finals of this region will be intense and have the most action but for all we know Iona and N.C. State will be in the finals of that region. Both Duke and MSU have a recent history of busting people's brackets and I won't be surprised if this year isn't any different. The article also claims that Villanova has an easy road but I can see a few teams making deep runs, nobody's safe. Currently my Final Four are Arizona(4), Xavier(1), Purdue(2), and Kansas(1). But what do I know, my bracket will probably be busted in the first round.