March Madness is the ultimate culmination of college basketball, with 64 teams from all over the country competing in a single-game elimination tournament to get to the top. Teams are seeded from 1-16, the higher the seed meaning more of an underdog, in four different regions. Every year teams that are underdogs beat the favorites, and that is usually known as an “upset”— an outcome that “was not meant to happen.”
March Madness 2024 has been a wild ride with many teams thought to be top contenders losing in the first and second rounds. This March alone has had some unexpected games, including 14-seeded Oakland beating three-seeded Kentucky, 13-seeded Yale over four-seeded Auburn and 11-seeded North Carolina State, making it to the Final Four. Many sports critics would call these upsets, but they should just be classified as wins. At the end of the day, the team that plays better gets the win, and the seeding alone does not always tell how good a team is.
Take NC State for example, they ended the season by winning the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, and have beaten teams all seeded higher except for the second round to make it to the Final Four, where they eventually lost to Purdue, who was seeded in first. Many would call this a Cinderella run because the team did more than expected, but looking at the evidence, they are not an average 11 seed. They ended the season hot, and have stayed that way throughout the tournament.
A Cinderella does not just mean that teams made it super far. For example, last year in the first round, 16-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson beat first-seeded Purdue and did not go any further. This game was one of the most entertaining ends and super satisfying to see the overrated Purdue team get beat. This season, the Oakland University Grizzlies famously beat the three-seeded Kentucky in the first round. Although star guard Jack Gohlke famously said “We are not a Cinderella,” they lost in the next round to another underdog, NC State.
Sometimes, even the teams that make it further than expected are lower seeds. Last year, my favorite team, the Miami Hurricanes, was seeded fifth and made it to the Final Four. Some might say this run was ‘unprecedented’ but that is not reality. They won the ACC regular season that year and although they started the tournament injured, they picked up the slack to beat many good teams, including the number one seed the University of Houston Cougars.
At the end of the day the team that plays better wins and if that happens to be the lower seed, then so be it. If a team does not play up to the expectations, then that’s the way the story unfolds.
