On Thursday March 16th, it was the start of madness. The top 64 teams in division I Mens College Basketball started playing to see who can outlast the rest and take home a national title.
With many fans that watch the NCAA, it did not take too long for brackets to start busting. Prior to the round of 64 it was believed that this March Madness is going to be different from the others. It is a wide open field and truly anyone can win it. Which came to fruition on the first day.
On Thursday, March 16th, in the round of 64 the 13th seed from the south region Furman University had surprised the 4 seeded Virginia Cavaliers 68-67. In the first half, it was a tight one both teams went going back and fourth playing competitive basketball with Virginia leading at the half 32-27.
In the second half of this tight battle, both teams were scoring left and right. with 9.2 seconds left on the clock Furman was down 65-67 and Virginia had the ball. Furman knew they needed to make a play as they trapped Virginia guard Kihei Clark and forced him into making a horrible pass which landed in Farman’s hand with only 5 seconds on the clock. The ball found its way to JP Pegues a below average three-point shooter who without hesitation sunk the trey to put Furman up by one and take down the number 4 seed Virginia.
Later on that Thursday afternoon, number 15 seeded Princeton had faced off against number 2 seed Arizona in the south region. Princeton from the Ivy League who had to fight their way through the conference tournament was keeping up with the high powered offense of Arizona with the score of 30-31 just trailing by one point going into halftime.
Entering the second half everyone thought that Arizona was going to get their heads straight and blow Princeton out the water. Princeton had other thoughts. They stayed in the game they played hard team oriented basketball and upset number 2 ranked Arizona with the score 59-55.
With the last game after a long stressful day of everyone brackets getting totally busted we got to see number 10 ranked Penn state from the Big Ten face off against Texas A&M from the SEC Conference.
Penn state who has an extremely good offense was able to make their shots and play strong defense which led them to victory against 7 seeded Texas A&M . It was Penn States game from beginning to end and Texas A&M was never able to get back in the game. Penn State won the game 76-59 to advance to the round of 32.
On the very next day Friday, March 17 there was an upset that nobody saw coming. Fairleigh Dickenson was leading number 1 ranked Purdue that plays in a PowerHouse Big Ten Conference. With a score of 32-31 going into the break.
Going into the second half of the ball game they knew that that was only half the battle. They still have to fight and play with the same energy that they played with in the first half. Sure enough they buckled down for the last 20 minutes of the contest and stopped the Boilermakers main scorer 7’4″ Zach Edey from getting easy buckets around the rim. FDU did the unthinkable and won the game 63-58 becoming only the second 16 seed to defeat a 1 seed in NCAA history.
Then moving forward to the round of 32 with half of the teams playing Saturday, there was another 1 seed fighting to keep their season alive.
Kansas from the Big 12 and Arkansas from the SEC conference had faced off against each other. At the end of the first half Kansas was controlling the game and taking care of business winning 35-27 without their Head Coach Bill Self unable to attending due to sickness.
In the second half Kansas just could not stop Arkansas offense and they had manage to put up 45 team points in the second half. Kansas started getting in foul trouble limiting themselves on the offensive and defensive ends. As a result the defending Champions Kansas had lost to number 8 seed Arkansas from the West Region with a nail-bitter score 72-71 with Davonte Davis leading the charge with a team high 19 points.
March is always known for its madness but due to the abundance of talent and the wide open field of play the games so far this year have truly been special. We will see who is still standing over the next few weeks as everyone aims for a chance at the final four in Houston, Texas.