March Madness Recap

March+Madness+Recap

Lucy Tiokeng, Staff writer

Prior to the March Madness Tournament beginning, over 16 million brackets were filled out on the ESPN Tournament Challenge app alone. Along with the many Coronavirus restrictions, this year’s March Madness had many changes and surprises. Even before their first tip off of the tournament, the VCU Rams were disqualified from playing against Oregon. Within the span of 48 hours, multiple new positive Coronavirus tests had been coming from the VCU men’s basketball team, causing them to forfeit.

A popular top seed entering the tournament was the undefeated Gonzaga bulldogs. The Zags were such a favorite to go all the way this year that 34% of the ESPN Tournament Challenge participants selected Gonzaga to be the championship team. As many college basketball enthusiasts say, “rankings mean nothing.” That statement never fails to be proved during March Madness. One of the biggest upsets of this year’s tournament was 15th seeded Oral Roberts upsetting the number two seeded Ohio State Buckeyes.

After the first round of the tournament, only 121 brackets out of the 16 million filled out, remained perfect. In the championship game, both number one seeded Baylor and Gonzaga competed for the title. Baylor defeated Gonzaga with a score of 86 to 70, putting an end to Gonzaga’s perfect season, and earning Baylor their first men’s basketball national championship title.