This year’s NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament has lived up to its ‘March Madness’ title. This year’s field of 64 offered fans big programs, cinderellas and even some surprise conference winners. With the diversity of teams playing, the number of exciting playoffs and upsets were at a premium.
The first round of play saw multiple upsets that were bracket-busters for many fans. The No. 12 Harvard Crimsons, who won the Ivy League regular season title, defeated the No. 5 Cincinnati Bearcats 61-57 to move to the second round. What was remarkable about the win was that prior to last year, Harvard had never won a tournament game. With the victory over Cincy, they now have two victories in the same amount of years.
The biggest upset of the tournament came in the first round, when the No. 14 Mercer Bears from the Atlantic Sun Conference defeated first-year phenom Jabari Parker and the Duke Blue Devils 78-71. This was not the first time in recent memory that Duke failed to advance from the round of 64. In 2011, Duke was defeated by Lehigh University and current NBA player C.J. McCollum.
While the cinderella stories of Harvard and Mercer were only able to last one round, the No. 11 Dayton Flyers were able to make it all the way to the Elite Eight. The Flyers upset the Ohio State Buckeyes in the first round 60-59 to advance to take on perennial power Syracuse. The underdog came out victorious in yet another close contest, beating the Orange 55-53.
The match-up for Dayton in the Sweet Sixteen was an evenly matched battle against the No. 10 Stanford Cardinal. Despite the two teams’ being only one seed apart, Dayton controlled the speed of play throughout the game, defeating Stanford 82-72.
The Flyers’ season ultimately came to an end when they ran into the No. 1 overall seed Florida Gators. Dayton was able to hang with the Gators for the majority of the game, but Florida’s energized offense was too much for the Flyers, who lost 62-52.
The Final Four is set with the Florida Gators’ being the only No. 1 seed left in the tournament. The No. 8 Kentucky Wildcats are the lowest seed to make it one step away from the National Championship. The Wildcats were able to advance after a last-second bucket by Aaron Harrison, downing Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans to advance.
Kentucky will take on No. 2 Wisconsin Badgers in the first of two semifinals. The Badgers advanced to the Final Four after defeating the No. 1 seed Arizona Wildcats 64-63 .
The Gators will take on the No. 7 UConn Huskies in a game that will highlight some of the country’s best players in Florida’s Patric Young and UConn star and first-team player Shabazz Napier.
With the unexpected outcome of so many games thus far in the tournament, it is anyone’s guess who will be cutting down the nets come April 7.
