March Madness. The time of year when people who usually aren’t college basketball fans, suddenly become interested. What is it?
For everyone isn’t a fan of college basketball, March Madness is the time of the NCAA college basketball tournament, played throughout the month of March. The tournament consists of 68 teams playing in single-elimination games with a Midwest region, a West region, a South region, and an East region.
In round one the first seeded team in the region plays the last seeded team in their region, and the second seeded tam plays the second to last seeded team and it goes on. People across the nation whether they are fans or not fans of college basketball make their own brackets and predict who will win each game before the tournament begins. Serious analysts and fans enter pools with a bunch of different people and play for money. This can get very intense.
A little bit of strategy, knowledge, and luck comes with picking your teams for your bracket. Senior Joe DiBenedetto, who is always a top contender in the pools ever year, thinks it’s definitely for knowledge than luck. “My strategy is to first pick my final four, and then work my way back using the obvious wins first. I pick my bracket for the most success by reading up and having a good knowledge for sports.”
The teams that are predicted to win don’t always win. There is always some upsets in rounds 1 and 2, which makes the tournament thrilling and intense. Graduate of WHBHS Reid Paoletta did things different this year when making his bracket. “Usually I do a lot of revisions before I pick my final teams, I don’t do much research but I will always revise certain picks, but this year I went purely off of gut feelings. I’ve realized knowledge doesn’t have to do with it; it’s definitely more luck.”
The 2013 NCAA tournament will be full of surprises and upsets. Certain teams are favorited to go to the final four in this tournament although anything can happen. It is more than difficult to predict a perfect bracket, so it’s good to have some knowledge when picking and a little luck when the teams start playing.