March Madness and Wisconsin Badgers
Jackson Pennings
The Wisconsin Badgers season ended Saturday night, as well as their hopes of a place in the national championship game. The Badgers weathered the long road to the Final Four, along with UCONN, Florida, and Kentucky. Wisconsin had a disappointing loss to the Kentucky Wildcats on Saturday, losing by just one point. Aaron Harrison of the Wildcats, hit a deep 3 with under 10 seconds left in the game to put Kentucky up by one. With a little over 5 seconds left, Traevon Jackson of Wisconsin took the ball down for one last shot at victory. He shot a pull up jumper at the buzzer, but it was just a bit off. The buzzer resonated throughout the stadium and wild cheers erupted from the Wildcats. And all Wisconsin could do is move on. If their is a good way to go out of the tournament, this was it. Wisconsin made every one of their free throws except one, they played excellently and they represented the state of Wisconsin beautifully. March Madness is most certainly madness. The two teams in the championship this year? 7th seed UCONN and 8th seed Kentucky. The highest combined seeds in the championship game in NCAA history. Looking back at this year, that seems fitting.
Tournament Recap
I'm no serious basketball expert, but I know that this year the tournament lived up to its name. Madness was what it was. With teams like Dayton and Harvard knocking off schools like Cincinnati. Or Duke being beat in the first round by mercer. Not your every day college basketball. The Big Ten conference definitely showed their stuff as powerhouses Michigan, Michigan St. and Wisconsin all made it to the Elite Eight.
Bracketology
Ouch. For people who printed and filled out tournament brackets this year, there was little success. Upset after upset was recorded in the books, making finding even a decent bracket a needle in a hay stack. Who would have thought that Mercer would have beaten Duke. Or that Dayton could topple Ohio State. For some people, their upset brackets (brackets where they predict big upsets) were more accurate than their real brackets. It's pretty humiliating when the team you think will go all the way loses in the first round. But that was this year. And who would have thought that UCONN would go all the way? Unpredictable. Mind-Blowing. Madness.