With March Madness being a week away, everyone is wondering who will win the men’s tournament this year. Will a top-ranked team come out on top, or will an underdog emerge from the shadows? In 2022 based on fivethirtyeight.com, a team outside of the top 4 has about a 32.2 percent chance of winning march madness. This leaves just enough room for the impossible to happen.
The NCAA tournament started in 1932 when the Oregon Ducks beat Ohio State 46-33. As the years went on, the tournament expanded four times! The expansion happened in 1951, 1975, 1985, and 2011 to its current 68-team competition. The University of Kansas was the most recent team to win, with a 72-69 score against The University of North Carolina. The tournament selections aren’t final until March 12th, but we can still predict which teams are most likely to make it into the tournament.
Based on the NCAA, the qualifying tournament rules state that every conference champion will automatically qualify for March Madness resulting in 32 teams getting in. The other 36 teams will have to be selected at large. Some of the teams seeded high as of the publishing of this article include Alabama, Kansas, Purdue, Huston, UCLA, Baylor, Texas, and Marquette, cracking into the top eight. They say defense wins championships, so it shouldn’t surprise us that Huston currently has the number-one defense. Huston allowed an average of fewer than 56 points scored against them per game. Purdue is 18th with 62.2 points allowed. Alabama is seeded 3rd. UCLA is seeded 6th. Marquette is seeded 20th, and Texas is seeded 30th in scoring offense.
What is March Madness without an upset? A low-ranked team that I believe will do well is Saint Mary. They are currently ranked 17th in the nation, but they could go further. They played Huston back on December 3rd and lost 48-53. However, a 5-point loss against a current number-one-ranked team is not as terrible as it seems. They beat Gonzaga (#10) once this year and beat San Diego St. (#18).
There are a lot of good teams this year that could make it into the tournament. One of those teams, located in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, is Grambling. They are currently #17 in the nation for the fewest points allowed. Who knows, they might start March with madness.
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Madness in March?
March 7, 2023
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