Major Upsets Make for an Exciting Tournament

 

March 24, 2022

After the Super Bowl, there is lull in sports. The games in the too long seasons of basketball and hockey droll on. Animosity between owners and players delayed spring training. However, that is all about to change. We are in the throes of “March Madness” and baseball and the golf’s Masters begin the same week as the NCAA final. The NBA playoffs start the following week and the NFL draft is April 28-30.

The NCAA tournament continues to the best of all post season playoffs. One bad performance and your season is over. As usual, there are many close games and a lot of upsets. The Cinderella team this year is Saint Peters College in the East bracket. . This small Jesuit College from Jersey City, ranked #15 upset #2 powerhouse Kentucky. They then knocked off Murray State to reach the Sweet 16. In the same bracket,   #1 seed Baylor erased a 25 point deficit in the final 10 minutes to send the game to OT. At this point I and I’m sure many others thought Baylor would take care of business and advance. However, the Tar Heels dominated the OT and sent Baylor packing.

Gonzaga fans must be smacking their lips knowing they won’t have to face Baylor or Kentucky to advance to the second straight finals appearance. Although they struggled in the first two games, they should take care of Arkansas and either Duke or Texas Tech to reach the final four.

Over in the South things are running more true to form, although #1 seed Arizona needed OT to beat #9 TCU. The Cinderella team in this bracket is #11 seed Michigan. They beat Colorado State and then upset #3 Tennessee. This upset was due in large part to Tennessee’s lack of 3 point shooting. In this day and age you can’t win if you can’t make 3 point shots.

In the Midwest Kansas by far is the best team and next play #4 Providence. In the lower half the brackets there were other major upsets Kansa should have an easy time as both #2^nd #3 seeds were upset.  #10 Miami who knocked off #2 Auburn after upsetting USC. #11 Iowa State beat #3 Wisconsin after beating #6 LSU.

After this writing, instead of smacking their lips ahead are now licking their wounds after being ousted by Arkansas. Arizona, another #1 seed was knocked out by Houston. Games like these are  what makes this tournament great.