Every March since 2011, the United States has been captivated by a 68-team tournament that sets out to decide the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball champion. The vast number of games, with a total of 147.57 quintillion possible outcomes, has given this tournament currently underway the appropriate name March Madness.
In short, 68 basketball teams are divided into four 16 team brackets with four play-in games, revealed to the public on what is now referred to as “Selection Sunday,” when most people make their own brackets to try and guess the tournament’s outcome.
Two days later, the First Four games are held in Dayton, Ohio, to determine the four lowest seeded teams in the brackets. It puts the eight weakest qualifiers against each other, four of which are the lowest seeded teams that automatically qualify for the brackets and the other four the lowest seeded teams that have been invited to compete.
After determining the final bracket configurations, the games begin. They continue for about a week, whittling the brackets down until only the “Sweet 16” remain.
Those teams play for spots in the “Elite Eight,” then the “Final Four.” The last four teams play until only two teams remain, and then a final game is held to determine the champion.
This year, March Madness had a wild start, to say the least. On March 16, the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, a No. 16 seed, went up against the overall No. 1 seed, the University of Virginia, and won. This is the first time in March Madness history that a men’s No. 16 seed has beat a No. 1 seed.
As of Monday, we have all of the Sweet 16; their games on through tonight will determine which teams go on to the Elite Eight.
Yesterday, the games kicked off at 7:05 p.m. with No. 7 Nevada versus No. 11 Loyola-Chicago with a final 68-69 Loyola score, followed by No. 3 Michigan versus No. 7 Texas A&M with a final 99-72 Michigan score.
Then at 9:35 p.m., No. 5 Kentucky went up against No. 9 Kansas State with a 61-58 Kansas final score, followed up by No. 4 Gonzaga versus No. 5 Florida State with a 75-60 Florida final score.
Today, the games will resume at 7:05 p.m. with No. 1 Kansas versus No. 5 Clemon, followed by No. 1 Villanova versus No. 5 West Virginia. Then at 9:35 p.m., No. 2 Duke will play against No. 11 Syracuse, followed by No 2. Purdue versus No. 3 Texas Tech.