NCAA March Madness In Review

It’s over. All of the hype, all of the heartbreak, all of the tension is over. Duke won Monday in a thrilling March Madness final, and all of the pool winners across the nation are racking in their winnings. But after such an unusual tournament, we need to step back and look once again at this year’s NCAA tournament.

Upsets. This year was full of them. The biggest of them all? Probably #9 Northern Iowa beating #1 overall seed Kansas 69-67 in the second round. Other notable upsets:

#14 Ohio beating #3 Georgetown 83-68. Georgetown had the hardest schedule over the entire year, and they had the ability to win the entire tournament.

#11 Washington beating #3 New Mexico 82-64 in the second round.

#6 Tennessee  beating #2 Ohio State 76-73 in the Sweet 16. Ohio State could have been a #1 seed over Syracuse or Duke, while the Volunteers were considered lucky to make it past the second round, only because they played Ohio instead of Georgetown.

#13 Murray State beating #4 Vanderbilt 65-64 in the first round.

#5 Butler beating #1 Syracuse 63-59 in the Sweet 16. Butler traditionally isn’t the kind of powerhouse school like Kansas, Duke, or UNC (who didn’t even make the tournament) but they managed to knock off both Syracuse and #2 Kansas State 63-56 in the Elite 8.

There were others, but the last two big ones were Cornell and St. Mary’s. Both were seeded below their first round opponents (Cornell was #12, St. Mary’s #10) and both made it to the Sweet 16.

An when all is said and done, none of it mattered. Only 1 winner out of 65 teams. Duke, the #3 overall seed, beat Butler 61-59 in the national championship.