By Elliot Cohen
The brackets have been chosen and the “madness” in March Madness is underway. Every year towards the end of March comes NCAA men’s basketball playoffs. The winner of March Madness determines the champions of college basket ball. For college basketball fans, this two week period is there Super Bowl.
The most exciting thing about the tournament is that anyone can win. Seeding is based upon the season of results. If a particular team did better than a different team than they are seeded higher in the rankings. This is how upsets begin. Since there are so many teams playing against each other in single elimination games many top ranked teams get knocked out pretty early.
For some, upsets are tough to handle, especially if it is early on. For others, upsets are what make the tournament truly magical. There is no telling how an underdog might feel against a heavy favorite, or how a heavy favorite might feel against the weaker underdog. This is a prime example of the classic David vs. Goliath scenario.
The tournament is broken down into a bracket. The highest seeds are placed against the lowest seeds of each side. The bracket is broken down into four sections (Midwest, East, South and West) containing sixteen teams each section. Two of the four sections (South/East and Midwest/West) merge. The brackets progress from the First round, to the Second round, to Regionals, to Semi-finals, and finally to the National Championship.
Every year, as the tournament progresses, sports analysts talk about the Cinderella story. Basically, the Cinderella story is about how an extremely underrated, or under ranked, team makes it far in the tournament by beating many top seeded teams. This causes dramatic chaos for the sports world. It can also allow previously unnoted players be able to show what they got to the big time NBA scouts. Players on teams that would have never been considered as a threat play substantial roles in the tournament.
Usually as a team builds momentum throughout a tournament they build confidence that they had never had. For example, last year highly ranked Louisville was very talented and seemed to be a threat. Louisville memorable had a close late game with Duke. Louisville player, Kevin Ware broke his leg late in the game in a very dramatic manner. The team rallied behind the loss of one of their key players to win. This spark lead Louisville to winning a national championship and was the extra push of confidence that they needed.
Since each game is single elimination there is a lot of hype and pressure around each and every game for every single team. Last minute buzzer beaters are one of the great parts of this historic tournament. A buzzer beater is a last minute shot to win the game. If it goes in the history of that school may change forever, but if it misses then the hopeful team is sadly eliminates. After all every game must have a winner and a loser.