This year’s March Madness was another exciting one with plenty of upsets and one of the most notable ones over the past couple years. NC State, rated at an 11 seed, ended up making it to the last 4 in the bracket, which almost nobody would’ve expected. But UConn, the team that was predicted to win the tournament, did end up winning it so it was another expected but wild year for college basketball.
East Region
In the East side of the bracket, there were no major upsets besides 13 seed Yale beating 4 seed Auburn 78-76. However, number 5 San Diego State would then go on to win against Yale and that would be the end of their run. UConn then beat everybody in their way and advanced to the Final Four.
West Region
On the West side, 12 Grand Canyon upset 5 Saint Mary’s in the first round, and then when it got to the 3rd round (Sweet 16), 4 Alabama upset 1 North Carolina and would then advance to the Final Four. 6 Clemson also upset 3 Baylor in the 2nd round and then 2 Arizona in the Sweet 16. Clemson then lost to Alabama in the Elite 8 though.
South Region
On the other side of the bracket in the South Region, there were many upsets. In the first round, 12 James Madison beat 5 Wisconsin, 11 NC State beat 6 Texas Tech, and then 14 Oakland won vs. 3 Kentucky. In the Sweet 16, 4 Duke then beat 1 Houston, who were also title favorites. Then NC State went on its run and went all the way to the Elite 8, and then also beat 4 Duke.
Midwest Region
In the Midwest conference, the only upset was number 11 Oregon beating 6 South Carolina, but nothing else was unexpected on that side. 1 Purdue then cleared everybody in their path and got to the Final Four.
Final Rounds
By the time the Final Four came around, it was 1 UConn vs 4 Alabama and then 11 NC State vs 1 Purdue. UConn easily beat Alabama with a score of 86-72, and then NC State and Purdue battled, but 1 Purdue won 63-50 to win the 2024 March Madness Bracket.
Summary
I asked multiple people what they thought about this year’s March Madness, and one freshman said, “Not the same as last year because they’re weren’t as many upsets and stuff, but still fun to watch.” Another student at Timnath said, “I didn’t watch the whole thing but from what I saw it was pretty cool, kinda more boring than last year though.”
Personally, I thought this year’s March Madness was pretty fun, and especially exciting when Oregon made it that far and same with NC State, both being pretty low seeds.
So people viewed March Madness to be similar to last year and to not have much exciting happen, unless you’re a Purdue fan. But as always, even if it isn’t the most exciting season yet, it still happens to always gain people’s attention every year, even as not a big fan of men’s college basketball, or basketball in general.