March Madness Recap

Each year, as the clocks start to move back and the weather starts to act wild, every basketball fan, and pretty much every other sports fan tunes in to watch the craziest part of March, March Madness.  

If you’ve lived under a rock your whole life and somehow don’t know what March Madness is, here’s a quick rundown. March Madness is a 64-team college basketball, both men and women’s, tournament to determine the champion. It’s often full of crazy stories, big upsets, and overall a very fun thing to watch. It also tends to have a Cinderella story or two a year, where a small, low-ranked college beats a top-seeded team or two to make their way deep into the tournament.

This year’s tournament however, was very tame in terms of March Madness. For example, the final four this year had the top seeds from each region; Florida, Duke, Auburn, and Houston. There was also a noticeable lack of a Cinderella run this year. The closest one was 10th seeded Arkansas reaching the sweet sixteen. However, considering the size and major conference status of Arkansas, it’s not considered a Cinderella run.

This year’s tournament was also highlighted by the insane amount of SEC teams in the tournament, a record of 14. They also sent eight of them to the second round, four to the elite eight, two to the final four, and one to the national title.

In contrast to the relatively boring start of the tournament, the final four and national title games were electric. Headlined by three games decided in the final minutes and several stars, this on-paper boring final four was anything but.

In the first game, two SEC schools, in Florida and Auburn, duked it out in a 79-73 game. The game was hard fought and close the entire time, with the score going back and forth. However, guard Walter Clayton Jr, on the back of his 34 points, brought Florida to their 79-73 victory and the national title game.

In the second game, Duke led Houston by 14 with a little over eight minutes remaining in the second half. However Duke choked, coughing up the lead and losing 70-67 as they only scored one field goal in the last ten minutes of game time. This loss was painful for Duke fans, not only because losing a game where you have a 92.3% chance of winning with 42 seconds left is, but it especially hurts in a year where you have a real shot at winning a national title.
“More than anything, it’s a disappointment,” Duke guard Sion James said about the game, “We fully believe that we had the best team in the country and we had a chance to prove it.”
Finally, the national title game came. Florida vs. Houston. In it, Houston came out to an early lead, leading 31-28 at the half in the defensive slugfest. Houston then extended their lead up to 12 points before Florida clawed their way back. However, Houston had an excellent opportunity to tie it up or win it, as they had the ball with 19.7 seconds left. So did they go for 2 to tie it? Go big or go home and shoot a three? How about not getting a shot off and Florida wins!

In this depressing final possession, Houston did in fact not get off a shot and watched as their hopes and dreams were knocked away, just like the ball in the final seconds. As everyone dove for the ball and the buzzer rang, despite only leading for 64 seconds the entire game, Florida won their first national championship since their back to back titles in 2006 and 2007. 

“Yeah, it’s special. I feel like that’s why everyone in our locker room came to Florida, just to bring Florida back to that national relevance and bring back a national championship to Gainesville,” said Florida guard Will Richard while being interviewed about the national title game on CBS Mornings.

In conclusion, despite the lack of Cinderella runs and early round craziness, this year’s March Madness was still great to watch. Due to the wildness of the SEC, final four, and national title, this year was another great installment of March Madness.