In the month of March, the NCAA has their annual Division I basketball tournament. This tournament is composed of the 68 best teams in Division I college basketball, selected by a committee in charge of selecting seeding and matchups. The number one overall seed, or the best team according to the committee was the Auburn Tigers, who finished 28-5 and finished second in the Southeastern Conference.
On March 18th and 19th, the tournament began with the First Four, which is eight teams competing for four spots in the tournament. The first game was Alabama State and St Francis PA, competing to play against #1 Auburn as a 16 seed. The game came down to the wire, but ended with Alabama State making a layup with below five seconds to play, and Alabama State came out with a win, 70-68. The second game after that was North Carolina against San Diego State, competing to play against #6 Ole Miss as an 11 seed. North Carolina put up 95 points and won easily, 95-68. On March 19th, Texas and Xavier University competed to play #6 Illinois as an 11th seed. Xavier won 86-80, coming back from down seven points at halftime to win. The final game in the First Four was Mount St Marys vs American University. Mount St Mary’s won easily, 83-72. They had a ten point lead at half and American never cut that lead down.
On March 20th and 21st, the First Round began. Each 1st seed beat the 16th seed by over 20 points, with the largest margin being Duke beating Mount St Marys, 93-49 and the smallest margin was Auburn beating Alabama State, 83-63. Each second seed won over the 15th seeds, but Alabama skated by #15 Robert Morris, beating them 90-81 aided by a 26-16 run over the final seven minutes. Each third seed won, with the closest game being UNCW being defeated by Texas Tech by 10. The largest margin of victory was Iowa State defeating Lipscomb, 82-55. The notable upsets that happened were #12 McNeese State defeating #5 Clemson, 69-67. McNeese was leading by 22 with around 8 minutes to go, but Clemson outscored McNeese by 20 to make the game closer. Another notable upset was #12 Colorado State defeating #5 Memphis, 78-70. Colorado State was consistently winning for the majority of the game, however Memphis made a bit of a comeback and was able to cut the lead to a few points at one point, but Colorado State was able to outlast them. The last notable upset was #11 Drake over #6 Missouri, 67-57. Drake was able to keep a lead for most of the game, and played good defense to hold Missouri below 60 points. Outside of those upsets, all of the higher seeded teams were able to win, as all #4 and #6 seeds were able to bring home wins.
On March 22nd and 23rd, the second round began. There was one notable upset, being #10 Arkansas defeating #2 St Johns, 75-66. St John’s was a top team to make the Elite Eight or Final Four, but they lost. Other notable matchups include #12 Colorado State losing to #4 Maryland on a buzzer beating shot by Derik Queen. Outside of that, there were not very many interesting games, in which the higher seeded teams were able to take home the wins. On Thursday, March 28th and Friday, March 29th, the Sweet 16 took place. In the Sweet 16, all of the one seeds and three of the two seeds defeated their opponents. The lowest seed who won their Sweet 16 game was #3 Texas Tech, who defeated #10 Arkansas 85-83 on a made basket within the final 10 seconds of the game.
On March 29th and 30th, the Elite 8 began. Everyone one seed was able to defeat their foe, with #1 Auburn defeating #2 Michigan State 70-64. #1 Duke defeated #2 Alabama, 85-65. #1 Florida defeated #3 Texas Tech, 84-79 after going on a 19-5 run in the final 2:48. Finally, #1 Houston defeated #2 Tennessee, 69-50. In the Final Four which began on April 5th, #1 Florida defeated #1 Auburn, 79-73. The Gators were down by 8 at halftime but outscored Auburn by 14. #1 Houston defeated #1 Duke, 70-67. They outscored Duke 25-8, with a 9-0 run in the final 33 seconds. This win set the stage for #1 Florida and #1 Houston to compete for the National Championship. On April 7th in San Antonio, TX, Florida defeated Houston 65-63, and came back from 12 points down to secure their third national championship in school history. Will Richard led the Gators with 18 points, and LJ Cryer led Houston with 19 points. For Houston, LJ Cryer was the only player who scored 10 points or more.
Cites –
https://www.ncaa.com
https://www.espn.com/
