Now that the month of March is upon us, we have now entered the most exciting time of the year; March Madness. With conference tournaments in the process of wrapping up, the madness has already begun with many buzzer-beater shots. However, true excitement of the NCAA tournament is yet to come. If the regular season taught us anything, it is that college basketball is wildly unpredictable, and the one sure thing is that no one’s bracket will be safe this year.

With mere days to go until the selection for the tournaments, college basketball is currently in the excitement of the conference tournaments. This is where you would see teams with awful records score unbelievable wins over much better teams. Already there have been many buzzer beater shots on both the men’s and women’s side. As stated, it might be exciting watching the conference tournaments, but the excitement can’t even compare to the big dance in a couple weeks. 

For the women’s side, the season has been dominated by the undefeated University of South Carolina, who has steamrolled many of their opponents this year. The other big story has been the University of Connecticut and their struggles. This team suffered five losses throughout the year, which is five more than what we are accustomed to with UCONN. South Carolina and UCONN are the usual powerhouses, but the rise of Louisiana State Univeristy (LSU) has been quite the suprise for many this season. The biggest players to watch for the tournament include: Maddy Siegrist (Villanova), Angel Reese (LSU), Olivia Miles (Notre Dame), Azzi Fudd (UCONN), Haley Jones (Stanford), and the two favorites for player of the year, Aliyah Boston (South Carolina), and Caitlyn Clark (Iowa).

With all of the star players on the women’s side, South Carolina’s dominance will be tested from all sorts of top teams. Repeating as National Champions will be the biggest question of South Carolina this tournament, and we will have to see if they will be able to achieve this feat. 

Switching gears to the men’s side, last year’s tournament was unforgettable with the infamous St. Peter’s University run to the elite eight, the North Carolina versus Duke final four match, and the largest comeback in the National Championship game ever, which was done by Kansas University. Yet this year, with number one teams losing left and right and lower ranked teams beating the higher ranked on a very consistent basis, it has never been easier to say that this year’s edition of March Madness will be very unpredictable. 

The top teams to look out for are: Purdue, Houston, Alabama, Kansas, and UCLA, but there is no guarantee that any of these teams will have it easy once the tournament starts. In the past two tournaments alone a 15 seed has knocked off a 2 seed. The days of the top seeds having it easy in the first few rounds are long gone, and no game is considered a “freebie” anymore. Some of the top players to watch in the tournament include: Marcus Sasseer (Houston), Drew Timme (Gonzaga), Brandon Miller (Alabama), Jalen Wilson (Kansas), and Zach Edey (Purdue).

Tension is in the air and anticipation is building for the start of this amazing tournament. Hopefully this year, similar to years past, there will be an amazing Cinderella story that captivates the nation in which others have before. But, that’s impossible to predict just like every other game in March Madness.