Bracketology

It’s time. March is here, folks. It’s time for bracket busting, a new Cinderella to wear its glass slipper, and an eventual champion to make history they will never forget.

For this week’s column, I will share my tips for completing your bracket for this year’s tournament.

“The number one seeds”- yes, they are the big bad wolf of the tourney- but giants will always tend to fall. However, my national championship picks consist of two numberone seeds, the University of Houston and the University of Connecticut. It’s only because their path to the championship will have weakened by the round of 16 or “sweet sixteen.

You also have to respect the “Group of Five” teams. The most memorable GOF team was the 2007-08 Memphis Tigers squad, led by Chris- Douglas Roberts, Derick Rose, and coach John Calipari.

This team, as many of you recall, was just seconds from a national championship until a clutch three from Mario Chalmers of the University of Kansas Jayhawks from Kansas tied the game, sending the game into overtime, where the Tigers would eventually lose.

I remember due to the lack of conference competition, people wrote the Tigers off with many thinking they couldn’t get past the Sweet 16. And finally, how could we forget the monsters from the mid-major or the Cinderellas? These teams are likely only in the tournament because they have won their conference championship. I’ve learned from years of watching the tourney that it’s okay to choose those teams even if you have them going into the following weekend. They always said a 16 couldn’t beat a one. Still, we finally witnessed it in 2018 when the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, the number 16 seed, took down the number 1-seeded Virginia Cavaliers. “Though it would fuel the Cavaliers to win a national championship the very next season. March is a month of magical moments and heartbreak; just ask the 1998 Ole Miss basketball team.