Time is quickly winding down until March Madness, the biggest part of college basketball, begins. March Madness is a tournament-like setting where the top 64 college teams are all seeded differently. Teams will be seeded on March 16th, and the first game begins on March 18th.
The second round is from March 22-23, the Sweet 16 is from March 27-28, the Elite Eight is from March 29-30, the Final Four is April 5, and the Championship game is April 7.
The tournament is split up into four different regions; known as the South, Midwest, East, and West. Each region has a total of 16 seeds that go from the best record which would be seed one, to the worst record seeded at 16.
Each region plays at different places. For the region finals, the East region will be playing in Newark, New Jersey. The South region is being played in Atlanta, Georgia. The West region is playing in San Francisco California. Lastly, the Midwest region is playing in Indianapolis Indiana.
The final four sites and Championship game will be held in San Antonio.
There are some teams that are already guaranteed to make the tournament and have a good seed. Some of these teams are Auburn, Tennessee, Duke, Houston, Michigan State, and Alabama.
On the other hand, there are some teams that may not make it or if they do they would be the last seed. These include teams like Omaha, Bryant, Robert Morris, and Central Connecticut.
It is most likely that a high-seeded team will win the tournament because they are considered to be one of the best teams.
Looking at a current one seed, Auburn, they are a high favorite to win the championship. They currently have the number one record in the SEC conference with 27 wins and two losses. They currently rank eighth in field goals made per game and second in turnovers which are two very important stats.
Another expected high seed, Alabama, also has a decent possibility of winning the championship. They are holding the number one spot in points per game with an average of 90.6.
The potential lower seeds like Omaha and Bryant have the statistically lowest chance to win, but crazy things in the tournament have happened before.
For example, in last year’s tournament, the number 11 seed N.C. state lost in the final four which is very close to the championship. Another example is in 2022 when the number eight seed North Carolina made it to the championship and ended up losing by three points.
My predictions for the tournament are that all of the one seeds such as Tennessee, Houston, Auburn, and Duke will all make it to the Sweet 16. The National Championship will be between Michigan State and Duke. These are both teams who play very well together and when hot can be very good at scoring. It will be a very close game where Michigan State will come out with the lead early in the game. The whole time it will be neck and neck where eventually Duke is able to squeeze out a victory with a last-possession score.
