The NCAA tournament is known by sports fans as March Madness for very good reason. It’s chaotic, crazy and crammed with court action – between now and the final on 3 April every basketball fan in America, and throughout the world, will be transfixed with the drama on their TV screens and tablets. Some 68 teams and hundreds of players are involved in the ‘bracket’ knockout games, desperate to go as far as possible and have a shot at becoming a superstar. The tournament is totally unique, totally addictive and totally…mad!
This NCAA event seems to have a complicated structure, but it’s actually very clever and exciting. There are 68 college teams in the bracket. The First Four games involve the eight lowest ranking teams, with the winners going through to the main draw – this year they were Kansas State, Mount St.Mary’s, N.C. Central and USC. Of the remaining 64 teams, 32 got their spots by being conference champions, with the rest being selected by committee on Selection Sunday that preceded the First Four.
Teams are divided into South, West, East and Midwest regions and ranked from 1 to 16. The No1 ranked team plays No16, No2 takes on No15 and so on. This should mean that the best-ranked teams are made a good bet by bookmakers such as 888Sport to reach the latter stages at the end of March, but that’s not always the case and is a big appeal of March Madness. Unlike other basketball series where ‘best of’ wins through, one shock win can see a minor team through and a big team dumped in Row Z. That’s pretty wild. The aim is to reach the second round and then win the delightfully named Sweet 16, Elite Eight and Final Four stages en route to the final.
In 2017, the five debut teams are Northern Kentucky, North Dakota, UC Davis, Jacksonville State and Northwestern. They appeared in the draw with experienced programs like Kansas, Duke, Arizona and UNC. Reigning champs Villanova shot down 16th ranked St. Mary’s 76-56 in the first round. But in the south section, University of Minnesota were surprisingly dumped 81-72 by Middle Tennessee State University – an outfit ranked seven spots behind the Golden Gophers. Richard Pitino’s Gophers are still reeling from the loss of Akeem Springs before that game and their recent Big Ten Tournament semi-final loss to Michigan Wolverines maybe hit them harder than expected.
Villanova are the favourites to go all the way again this year. However, since 1985 only two teams – Duke and Florida – have kept hold of their title. The roster at Kansas looks as strong as any other team’s and North Carolina, Gonzaga, Arizona and those reliable Blue Devils are in with a shout too. Of the college players on display in March Madness, keep your eyes on Kansas’ Frank Mason III. He’s a big-game player and helped Kansas to the Big 12 title. Villanova’s Josh Hart, Lonzo Ball at UCLA and Iowa State’s Monte Morris could all be NBA bound. The NCAA’s March Madness is a tournament not to be missed, and even The Gophers will still watch the rest of the action and court drama… from their TV armchairs, of course.