March is the greatest month of the year for basketball fans as the notorious March Madness tournament is played between 64 teams, where there are crazy upsets and intense games. This year the UConn Huskies were able to win back-to-back championships, being the first team to do this since Florida in 2006 and 2007. The Huskies did not struggle very much in the tournament.
Even though Purdue lost in the finals, Zach Edey had a historical tournament. He had a double-double in each game and had at least 20 points in all of them as well.
Edey had 40 points in the elite eight game against two seed Tennessee which was 61% of Purdue’s points that day. He also dropped 37 points in the National Championship but ended up falling short of UConn.
DJ Burns Jr of North Carolina State also had a great tournament run as he led the 11 seed wolfpack to their first final four since 1983. NC State finished 17-14 and was a 10 seed in the ACC tournament. The only reason they made the March bracket is because they won their conference championship game.
Alabama also made it to their first final four in program history after pulling off a huge upset against one seed North Carolina in the sweet sixteen. They fell short to UConn in the final four as UConn pulled away late to secure their win.
The Huskies were the number one team in college basketball coming into the tournament and proved that by blowing out 16 seed Stetson by 39 points. They then were able to breeze by nine seed Northwestern with a 75-58 win to advance to the sweet sixteen to play five seed San Diego State. They would end up winning by 30 as they were just cruising through the tournament. This trend didn’t stop as they absolutely crushed three seed Illinois by 25 points in the elite eight. The final four is where they got their first test but ended up pulling away in the final minutes to beat four seed Alabama by 14. And then in the National Championship they crushed Purdue as they won by 15 and secured their six championships.
“UConn’s been running college basketball for the last 25 years.” said head coach Dan Hurley.
And the biggest upset of the tournament came when 14 seed Oakland beat three seed Kentucky as point guard Jack Gohlke hit ten threes to help Oakland secure this upset win.
March Madness was crazy this year, and fans are already waiting for next March, as it is the most exciting time of the year.
