Southern Lehigh students, teachers, and many others across the U.S. have joined the melee of March Madness, filling out brackets to predict the outcome of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament each March.
This year’s tournament was fraught with upsets, such as Harvard’s 68-62 win over third seed New Mexico, and 15th seed Florida Gulf Coast’s surprise journey to the Sweet 16, beating Georgetown and San Diego State. Ninth seed Wichita State also went further than expected, making it to the Final Four, the furthest a ninth-seed team has ever gone.
The Final Four came down to Louisville vs. Wichita State and Michigan vs. Syracuse. Wichita State fell to the Cardinals losing 72-68. Syracuse also fell, coming close at the end but losing 61-56 to Michigan.
This led to the championship game, Louisville versus Michigan. Louisville, already a strong team, had extra motivation to win after the gruesome injury to Kevin Ware in the Elite Eight against Duke, while Michigan was chasing their first championship win since 1989.
The championship was close and Michigan was only up one point at the half. The game stayed close until the final five minutes, when Louisville pulled forward with a 15-point lead to win the game 82-76.
So now that the nerve wracking, yet exciting journey through March Madness is over, our teachers and students look back on this year’s tournament.
“My bracket was horrible, I only had one of my picked Final Four teams actually make it that far,” junior Eric Scott said about his bracket predictions. “I also had Indiana winning the championship, but they lost in the Sweet Sixteen.”
Arguably the most exciting parts of March Madness are the upsets and Cinderella stories of small, unheard-of teams knocking out the top seed giants.
“[I thought the best upset was] Wichita State. They knocked out number one seed Gonzaga and made it to the final four,” junior Connor Lamelza said.
In the end, despite our destroyed brackets, March Madness is still a thrilling way to start the spring sport season.
“I thought it was fun because of the upsets,” social studies teacher Mr. Lee Zeisloft said. “As a North Carolina fan, however, I was disappointed, but excited to see good basketball.”
