March Madness is a term most basketball fans refer to as the NCAA Tournament that happens during March and early April. The tournament decides the national champion of college basketball and normally focuses on Division I colleges. Common questions that everyone is asking around this time are, “Have you filled out your bracket yet?” or “Who do you have winning it all?” Some people don’t even know what a bracket is and are left not knowing what’s going on. So, a bracket is a chart of all the teams playing, their seeding, who they play and when.
As you can see, there are blank spaces after the first round. This is where you come in! You fill out which teams you think will win, until there is a champion. People normally get a group of friends that will pay a selected amount to get into a “pool.” Whoever picks the right winner or has the most points at the end of the tournament wins the money. You don’t have to be in a “pool” to participate. You can simply fill out a bracket and compare you brackets with other people.
It’s OK if you haven’t watched any college basketball this season or if you don't know anything about basketball, March Madness can still be an exciting time for you. You’ll be hearing about this tournament for about a month now, so you might as well participate! The teams seeding is there to give you an idea of how the teams are going to do (or how they are supposed to do). This can help you fill out the bracket if you haven’t watched any of the games this season. Another thing that you should note is that there are 68 teams at the beginning of the tournament and as soon as they lose, they are done. The 68 teams are lumped together into four groups of 16 teams, by their region. These regions include East, West, Midwest and South. If a team wins the first game, then they move onto the Second Round, the next round is called the Sweet 16, then the Elite 8, the Final Four and finally the Championship. Now you may be thinking how did the NCAA picks these 68 teams, there are definitely more than 68 Division I basketball teams. Well the 32 teams that won their respective conference make it. Then the NCAA pick the rest on a day called Selection Sunday. The way the NCAA decides who they pick is based on records and who they have beaten throughout the season.
The teams you should watch this year are North Carolina, Virginia, Oregon and especially Kansas. They are all the No.1 seeds for each of the regions and are very entertaining teams to watch. Things to watch for while watching North Carolina is Marcus Paige, because he is a better shooter than you might realize. Also, that Jackson Simmons is a model of efficiency. Virginia is nearly unbeatable on their home court for the past four seasons. This year is the first time Oregon basketball has been ranked No.1 in the school’s history. Finally, Kansas has the longest current division / conference winning streak in all of sports. The last time Kansas didn’t win the Big 12 regular season title was in March of 2004.
Hopefully, this guide helped you figure out what March Madness is and how to navigate how it works. Fill out your bracket, sit back and enjoy the best time of the year!
