March Madness

Every year when March begins to approach, sports fans begin to get very excited for the college basketball tournament. The tournament consists of 64 teams and is split up in four different regions. The regions are, South (Atlanta), East (Boston), West (Los Angeles) and Midwest (Omaha). Each region starts out with sixteen teams and works their way down to the championship game.  One of the best things about the tournament is making a bracket. To be honest, it just makes watching the games a lot more fun. Plus, it is always funny to see the big upset games when they happen because no one expects it.

On each side of the bracket there has been some major upsets. Starting with the south side of the bracket, one of the biggest upsets in March madness history, the number sixteen seed UMBC Retrievers beat the number one seed Virginia Cavaliers by twenty points. If I had to guess, there were thousands of people who had Virginia making it to at least the sweet sixteen. Another notable upset on the south side was the number thirteen seed Buffalo, beating the number four seed Arizona by twenty points as well. Arizona was a team very capable of making it to the final four and maybe even the championship game. The east side has not had any upsets to really mess up any ones bracket.

The west side of the bracket has been very competitive so far this tournament. In the sweet sixteen they have four very talented teams and I think the games are going to be great to watch. Florida State takes on Gonzaga while Michigan will have their hands full with Texas A&M. Looking at the Midwest, there are some great games coming up. Number one seed Kansas will face Clemson while Duke will face a tough Syracuse team.

My Predictions

Elite Eight:

            South – Kentucky versus Loyola Chicago

            East – Villanova versus Texas Tech

            West – Gonzaga versus Michigan

            Midwest – Duke versus Kansas

Final Four:

            South – Loyola Chicago

            East – Villanova

            West – Michigan

            Midwest – Duke

Championship:

            Loyola Chicago versus Duke 

Champion:
           
           Loyola Chicago

This is very bold prediction, but every year one team makes it that surprises everyone and I think Loyola Chicago is the team this year. They will upset Villanova in the final four and face Duke in the National Championship game where they will win.