OH students and staff are locking in their brackets with March Madness just around the corner. It’s a 68-team bracket for the National Championship where the winner advances on and the loser is eliminated.
“The most exciting part is having your first couple picks hit, but then realizing how impossible it is to get a perfect bracket,” said OH junior basketball player Luke Roller.
According to ESPN, nobody has ever picked a verified perfect bracket in the history of the NCAA tournament.
“I really like doing the brackets. I think that’s an easy way to get people who aren’t interested in basketball, interested in basketball,” said Social Studies teacher Sarah Carlson.
People have come close in the past like neuropsychologist Gregg Nigl from Columbus Ohio who pulled off the greatest known bracket in NCAA men’s basketball history in 2019, but brackets in March Madness are always exciting because it is never totally predictable.
“I think in March Madness, a little bit less with women’s than men’s, there’s so many times the underdog wins and I think that’s one of the best parts about it,” said Carlson.
There have been many teams who have miraculously made deep runs in the tournament who weren’t expected to.
Math Department Chair and sophomore boys basketball Head Coach Matthew Borrowman said. “I love the players that nobody knows that comes out of nowhere.”
Fans will be anticipating what underdog teams will make a run in this year’s tournament.
“There’s a kid at Yale, Johnny Poulakidas, he’s from Neuqua Valley and I coached against that kid for four years of high school and he had an unbelievable tournament run last year,” Borrowman continued.
“They actually knocked off Auburn so it’s just kinda fun seeing kids you know that are at these smaller schools going in their way” said Borrowman.
This year, Auburn led by Johni Broome, has dominated and is the overall top seed in men’s college basketball as of writing this article.
“Auburn has been looking really good recently and are definitely one of the favorites in the tournament,” said Roller.
With a record of 25-2, Auburn has been very successful but there are other teams that have a real shot at the title.
“I’m not a huge Duke fan but I would probably take Duke right now. I think they’re the most well balanced team in the country” said Borrowman.
OH staff Kathleen Shuma and student Brian Jones both gave their hopes and expectations on March madness.
“I got Duke winning it all. That’s one team that I’ve really been following” said OH student Brian Jones.
Duke was the home to many great NBA players such as Jayson Tatum, Kyrie Irving and so on.
“The reason Duke is one of my favorite teams is because of the history of the team and I feel the coaches at Duke play big parts in the players in a positive way,” said Jones.
Duke has been a force in basketball for years and now they are led by Cooper Flagg, one of the top scorers in college basketball averaging almost 20 points a game.
“I think Cooper is probably the best college basketball player I’ve seen since Kevin Durant,” said Borrowman.
On the women’s side of the tournament Texas is the current top overall seed as of writing this article, but the competition is looking very high from schools around the country.
“Notre Dame, Texas, UConn is having a really good season and South Carolina obviously” said Carlson.
South Carolina won the Women’s National Championship last year against Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes, but with Caitlin Clark going to the WNBA this past year people speculate where Iowa will place this year.
“I would say Iowa would be a sleeper team this year, I don’t think they’re ranked that high. I think people discounted them without Caitlin Clark but they’re still really good” said Carlson.
USC has arguably the best women’s college basketball player in Juju Watkins averaging 24 points a game.
“I think Juju Watkins and Paige Buekers from UConn, those two are the top two… Juju Watkins is on pace to break Caitlin Clark’s scoring record” said Carlson.
When March Madness rolls around in a couple weeks, there will be heavy competition and great basketball to watch.
Hi, it's my first year on the 42Fifty staff. I am a senior at Oswego High School and I play football for the Oswego Panthers. You can contact me by emailing 42Fifty@sd308.org and putting my name in the subject line. We welcome comments on our articles and feedback on our publication!
