March 28, 2024

March Madness Recap

This year’s March Madness tournament definitely lived up to its name and kept people on their toes all month. Not one perfect bracket made it halfway through the tournament, which shows people how unbelievable the tournament was. 

Round one of the 2023 NCAA men’s basketball tournament showed us why it is called “March Madness”. With Tennessee breaking Duke’s 11-game win streak and Arkansas taking down Kansas, last year’s defending champion. Some of the best games to watch were the games where the low-seeded teams played the high-seeded teams. The lower seeds put up a good fight, winning a few key games. Everyone’s March Madness brackets lost as soon as No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson University beat No. 1 seed Purdue, the second ever 16-seed to defeat a top seed. That was the only game FDU wanted to win as they got taken down by Florida Atlantic University who made it to the Final Four. The favorite team to win the tournament was Houston, who had +550 odds for the betters out there, and was number 1 seed. Houston proceeded to get beat by Miami and only made it to the Sweet 16. 

With both of the Florida teams now out of the Final Four, with UConn beating Miami and San Diego St beating FAU, it all came down to the last two teams. UConn destroyed San Diego St in every category. The final score of the game was 76-59. UConn also had seven more rebounds, seven more assists and they’re field goal percentage was a whole 11% better. Adama Sonogo was on fire the whole tournament and was awarded tournament MVP for his play. He ended up scoring 17 points with 10 rebounds, which was a huge reason they came out on top.

Keshad Johnson, of San Diego State, tried to pull something together for his team while scoring 14 points with 4 rebounds, but they couldn’t come out on top. UConn had some huge wins before the ship that really got their momentum going, defeating No. 5 Saint Marys, No. 8 Arkansas, and No. 5 miami. They dominated all of these teams and gave them the confidence they needed to win it all. 

UConn won every single game in the tournament by over 15 points. The closest game they had was against Saint Marys, which they won by 15. That just shows that no one was going to beat them.

This year’s March Madness tournament definitely lived up to its name and kept people on their toes all month. Not one perfect bracket made it halfway through the tournament, which shows people how unbelievable the tournament was.