On Thursday, March 19th, there were 64 teams. Now 18 days later, only one team stands atop the mountain of college basketball and claims the title of the best college basketball team in the country. 

March Madness was full of headlines from Cinderella stories to UCLA’s magical run from the First Four to Final Four to perfect seasons on the line. The bracket busters of Oral Roberts, UCLA, Loyola Chicago, and Oregon State ruined almost everyone’s bracket as this tournament supplied us with the most upsets and highest average seeds to make it to the Sweet 16 in tournament history.  

The tournament capped off with a game between two #1 seeds: Gonzaga and Baylor. To make it to the championship game, Gonzaga had to end UCLA’s magical run with Jalen Suggs’s three-pointer as time expired in overtime; on the other hand, Baylor cruised past Houston in their Final Four matchup. 

The game tipped off with the Baylor Bears going on a 9-0 run. Baylor’s suffocating defense and a flurry of deadly 3 point marksmanship left Gonzaga stunned as they faced their largest deficit of the year. Towards the end of the first half, Gonzaga went on a run to bring the lead down to ten. But the second half started just like the first half as Baylor continued to play suffocating defense and hit shots from everywhere on the court. Late in the second half, one of the announcers said, “Gonzaga’s perfect season is now on life support.”  I would say it was on life support all night long. 

When double zeros were left on the clock, the  Baylor Bears claimed their first Men’s National Championship Title, and the drought for perfection continued. In conclusion, this year’s NCAA Men College Basketball Tournament had plenty of madness to make up for the madness lost from last year’s canceled tournament.