By Aidan Mastandrea
Staff Writer
After more than 60 hours of basketball, the first weekend of March Madness is complete, and I can officially say that my bracket is already dead. In my preview article, I gave my predictions for the tournament (spoiler alert: they were pretty much all wrong). While it's a tough pill to swallow having your bracket be horribly wrong after the first weekend, that is what makes this tournament so special. ESPN reported around 17 million Americans filling out a bracket, none remain perfect.
This weekend brought us a plethora of excitement and upsets, right up until the last game. One seed Arizona survived an upset bid from TCU in overtime in what some are pegging the game of the tournament because of the way these two teams fought back and forth.
Arguably the most shocking moment of the weekend took place on Thursday when 15 seeded Saint Peter's University took down powerhouse two seed Kentucky. Kentucky, one of the biggest programs in the country, gives 12 times the amount of money to its basketball program than that of Saint Peter’s, reports the New York Daily News — making the peacocks upset one of the biggest of all time. Saint Peters, out of Jersey City, New Jersey, will continue on their Cinderella run onto the sweet 16 after beating Murray State in the second round.
One seed Baylor was also taken down by the eight seeded North Carolina in an absolute slugfest of a game that saw Baylor battle back from 25 down to force overtime and ultimately lose.
The 10 seed Miami will meet 11 seed Iowa State in the Sweet 16 after taking down No. 2 Auburn and No. 3 Wisconsin, respectively. According to ESPN, only 1.3 percent of all brackets had these two teams matching up in the Sweet 16.
While there were many upsets, many big name teams remain. Gonzaga, Arizona, Kansas, Duke, and Villanova are the heavy favorites to make the Final Four.
My Predictions
Arizona and Duke are my only original Final Four teams left. While neither has looked particularly dominant, I will continue to ride with my first thoughts.
Midwest Region
Kansas is the prohibited favorite out of this bracket and would be the easy selection. I, however, am going to go with ten seed Miami. They dominated Auburn and are led by veteran coach Jim Larranaga. I see them beating Iowa State and making a Final Four run.
East Region
If I was picking with my heart, it would be Saint Peters. The tough nosed team out of New Jersey is easy to root for. While I would love for this to happen, I think UCLA makes it out of this region. They went to the Final Four last year and Johnny Juzang and Tyger Campbell just know how to get it done in March.
Once again, these are my predictions from this point forward — and I may be back here next week apologizing for my wrong picks. That will not stop me from forecasting my views and having another great weekend as there is nothing better than college basketball in March.
