SAN DIEGO — That time of the year is now upon us. It’s time to bust out your brackets, your predictions and your favorites for the NCAA March Madness tournament. Last year we saw a great underdog team in UConn (University of Connecticut), winners of 11 straight including the five in the Big East Tournament, win the national title led by powerful yet stout junior guard Kemba Walker. Now a NBA player for the Charlotte Bobcats, Walker put the UConn Huskies on his back for an amazing title run and everyone is anxious to see who’s next in line to take the title.
Of course we’re going to have our pre-tourney favorites such as your number one in the land Kentucky Wildcats led by three powerful freshmen and a coach (John Calipari) who just has a knack for winning. Just as in last year, you can never count out the nation’s top conference in the Big East with six top-25 teams including the number-two team in the nation, The Syracuse Orangemen, and the number-five team in the nation the Georgetown Hoyas.
On the Western seaboard there is a significant drop off in talented teams with the Pac-12 conference only predicted to send one team into the tournament, that being the Washington Huskies. You can never count our local boys out the Aztecs of San Diego State University ranked 25th in the land. Although the Aztecs have had a dismal season, and some analysts believe they only have the ranking they do because of the success of the team last year, the Aztecs are poised to make a late-season run. And the Mountain West conference as a whole is expected to send more than three teams into the Big Dance this year.
I went student-to-student to ask if they’re excited for the Madness to come and asked for any predictions for the up-and-coming tournament.
Daniel Jimenez, a freshmen communications major, said “ I can’t wait for the tournament to kick off, both of my older brothers go to State (SDSU) so I’ve been to a few games already this year and I have faith in those boys!”
Ashley Taylor, a freshman Geology major, said “ I’m not too into basketball, when I lived at home my dad was always glued to the TV during the tournament so I was caught up watching a few games. Yes, they’re exciting but I don’t know too much about how the whole thing works.”
As the regular season wraps up this weekend and conference tournaments start the anticipation grows stronger for the up-and-coming event. Last-chance teams are vying for those last few bubble spots and down-and-out teams only have a conference tournament win as a shot to get into the big dance. March Madness is full of twists and turns and this year won’t disappoint!
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Gibbons is a student in Media Comm 132A. He may be contacted at [email protected]
