The NCAA Basketball Championship often produces fun matchups and exiting games, but this year has seen widespread chaos and calamity reign supreme. With a 16 seed upsetting a 1 seed, a 15 seed making the sweet 16 and the elimination of all the 1 seed’s before the elite 8 this tournament has reminded us why we love March Madness.
Yet the four teams that remain are some of the best that college basketball can offer and none are necessarily surprising. One is a traditional powerhouse returned to glory, one has the best record in the NCAA, one has helped shed a narrative and the last is a concoction created by the NIL rules.
The one team that I believe that a good portion of people thought would go far is Uconn. One of the last three undefeated teams in college basketball this year (with Purdue and New Mexico), the team suffered a lull through Big East play. From December 31, 2022 to January 18, 2023, the Huskies went 1-5 with losses to St. Johns and Seton Hall.
Joey Calcaterra are a main reason why the Huskies are still dancing. Credit: Jessica Hill/AP Photo
Yet Uconn rebounded and played well down the stretch going 10-3 without any bad losses. A loss to Marquette in the Big East semifinal ended Huskie hopes that a Big East crown would return to Connecticut. The team earned a 4 seed in the West region, a tough region with Kansas, UCLA, and Gonzaga. Yet Uconn has run through this region with little trouble.
Iona, St. Mary’s, Arkansas and Gonzaga all suffered double digit losses, while Uconn is averaging 82 PPG in the tournament. As a whole, most figured that Uconn would score, but defensively, the Huskies are holding teams to 60 PPG. IMO, I believe that Uconn is the favorite to win it all since they are red hot offensively and play very good defense.
Florida Atlantic is the best story in this tournament. After a 19-14 2021-22 season, many didn’t expect the Owls to do much of anything. Yet FAU took off, achieving a 31-3 record and winning the C-USA tournament. This got the Owls a 9 seed in the East region and a match with Memphis.
In a great matchup, FAU took down Memphis on a late jumper and would play the winner of Purdue and FDU. To the surprise of the college basketball world, the knights took down the boilermakers and became the second 16 ever to win in the NCAA tournament. Yet like UMBC before it, FDU would not make it past the second game as the Owls rode a late rally to advance to their first sweet 16 in program history.
FAU’s run would continue in New York at Madison Square Garden, as they took down Tennessee and then defeated Kansas State to win the East region and claim a final four spot for C-USA (as a note that conference is 14-1 in the postseason at the writing of this piece).
They face San Diego State, the winner of the South region of the brackate. SDSU, which plays in the Mountain West Conference, was looking to shed some narratives. Since 2016, the Mountain West was 1-11 in the NCAA’s, while San Diego State hadn’t made a sweet 16 since the 2013-14 season.
While the Mountain West once again got four teams into the field, things looked grim once again as Nevada, Utah State and Boise State all lost in the round of 64 again, and the narratives were beginning to resurface. Yet the Aztecs, with the conference watching in apprehension, defeated the College of Charleston, one of the best mid-majors in the country, and Furman to advance to the second week of the tournament.
Yet the sense was that SDSU would fall to Alabama, the overall No.1 seed in the tournament, and the Mountain West would again be stunted in the round of 16. This didn’t happen, as the Aztecs used impressive defense and timely offense to defeat the Crimson Tide and move on. I won’t delve into the controversy surrounding their game against Creighton, as I personally think it was overblown, but even with the questions surrounding the late game whistle SDSU advanced to the final four for the first time in program history.
Lastly is Miami. While many, including myself, believe that the ACC was fairly weak this year; Miami was an exception. A team composed of mostly veteran players that transferred into the program via NIL that was built to win games in the NCAA’s has done so in grand fashion. Wins over Houston, Texas and Indiana are very impressive. Houston and Texas were two of the best statistical teams within the field, yet Miami soundly defeated both and won the Midwest.
Thus three of the four contestants in Houston are playing in their programs first final four ever. Two are from power conferences in the ACC and Big East, and two are from mid-majors, C-USA and Mountain West. While many suggested that NIL would deal a death blow to smaller schools and that all the talent would flow to the blue bloods, this hasn’t occurred. One of FAU or SDSU will play for the NCAA championship. I highly doubt that many saw that coming.
This, though, is what makes this tournament so special. Nothing can replicate this and while I am hopeful that the changes to the college football format will dramatically improve it’s watchability, it still won’t come close to the madness that is march.
By: Spencer Butler
Creation Date: March 29, 2023.
Sports Opinion Piece
ABQSportsReporter 