NCAA Men’s Tournament Recap
Throughout sixty of the sixty-three games, there have been many wild moments during the 2023 Men’s Tournament. Each region had its ups and downs, leaving Florida Atlantic, San Diego State, Miami, and UConn standing to fight for the national championship.
One of the most important stories going into this final weekend of games is the fact that there are no number-one seeds remaining in the elite eight. This is a first in tournament history.
Purdue now becomes the second one-seed in history to lose to a sixteen-seed, a 63-58 loss to Fairleigh Dickinson. They joined Virginia in that category with their notorious loss back in 2018 to UMBC. Kansas met their fate in the second round with a 72-71 loss to Arkansas. A loss that tanked a lot of brackets, mine included.
Speaking of broken brackets, of the over twenty million brackets submitted on ESPN, not a single one survived past the round of sixty-four. The first bracket buster was the matchup between Maryland and West Virginia.
In the south, heavy favorite Alabama cruised into the Sweet Sixteen with two 20-point wins over Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Maryland. This was before they got bounced by eventual region winner San Diego State. The biggest shock of this region was the Cinderella run of the Princeton Tigers. They beat both Arizona and Missouri to reach the sweet sixteen. Arizona also becomes the first school to have lost twice to a fifteen seed.
The midwest region saw three upsets in the first round from nine-seed Auburn, ten-seed Penn State, and eleven-seed Pitt. Houston met the same fate as Alabama in the Sweet Sixteen. They lost to the eventual regional winner Miami.
The East region also saw its share of upsets and runs. The previously mentioned victory of Fairleigh Dickinson and Florida Atlantic lead to a matchup only ever seen once before. Florida Atlantic put sixteen seeds at 0-2 all-time in the second round. With wins against region favorite Tennessee and Kansas State, Florida Atlantic became the third nine-seed in history to reach the Final Four.
For the West region, no upsets occurred in the first round, a rare feat in a tournament like this. Arkansas beat Kansas to make the sweet sixteen. Gonzaga, a school that has gained the reputation of being the bridesmaid of the tournament. They had never won a national championship, despite reaching eight straight sweet sixteens.
Now we are down to four. UConn does look like the favorite here, as they are the only team remaining with a national championship.
However, there are many ways that this tournament can go.
The biggest question may be how will this week of rest affect each team. My prediction? San Diego State and UConn in the national championship game, with UConn winning the championship.
We’ll see what happens.