Victory in Kansas: University of Kansas Wins March Madness

Ryan McKean, Multimedia Photo Editor

On Apr. 4, the University of Kansas Jayhawks defeated the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, concluding the annual March Madness tournament. 

The Jayhawks won their fourth national championship in school history, and their first title since 2008 when they defeated the University of Memphis. 

Kansas is one of the few powerhouse schools that dominated this year’s tournament, including other teams such as duke University, the University of North Carolina, Gonzaga University and the University of Kentucky. The last time either one of these teams did not make the tournament was decades ago.  

The March Madness tournament was created in 1993, and features 68 Division 1 college basketball teams. At the end of every season, a pool of 68 teams are selected based on their record. 

The 2022 March Madness tournament had its ups and downs. These upsets occurred where the lower seeds defeated the number one and two seeds. These losses were unexpected because the higher seeds are typically expected to win. A major Cinderella story emerged from this year’s tournament, with the Saint Peter’s University Peacocks placing 15 in the tournament this year. Saint Peter’s made NCAA Tournament history on Friday by becoming the first No. 15 seed ever to advance into the Elite Eight after knocking off Purdue University. 

By knocking off Kentucky in the first round and Purdue in the second round, Saint Peter’s made tournament history this year. Nobody believed that a school the size of Saint Peter’s could defeat a powerhouse like Kentucky or Purdue. 

“I was rooting for Michigan because they’ve been my team for my whole life, but once they were eliminated, I hopped on the Saint Peters train,” Miami Palmetto Senior High junior Jake Harris said.

Saint Peter’s head coach, Shaheen Holloway, led this historic team through the tournament. The results of their team’s season caused other college basketball teams to seek interest in him as a coach. One team in particular, Seton Hall University, hired Holloway as their new head coach. He was a former basketball player who attended and played at the university. 

Another string that comes attached with this tournament are brackets. Around the country, millions of Americans fill out brackets to predict the winner of the tournament. Never in history has there ever been a perfectly filled-out bracket. When the end of the tournament came around, there were zero remaining March Madness brackets.

March Madness 2022 is a month that will never be forgotten. Out of 68 teams, only one came out on top.