This year’s March Madness tournament was different from previous years, however fans were very happy that it was back after it was cancelled last year. Due to COVID-19 many teams faced hardships through the season due to cancellations and players getting the illness. 

Duke, one of the power houses in the March Madness tournament, was unable to compete due to players having Covid. Along with Duke, Kansas and Virginia were both required to withdraw from their conference tournaments. This affected the teams because the best way to get into the tournament is to win your conference tournament. 

In order to compete in the tournament the teams had to produce negative test results for 7 days. If teams got a Covid result during the tournament they would have been forced to withdraw and forfeit their games, however that only happened to VCU which gave Oregon the forfeit win. 

Senior Nick Churchill loves Kansas and hoped they would be able to compete for the title, but he was let down after they lost in the second round to UTEP. “Although they were unable to compete in the conference tournament, they still made the bracket. However it wasn’t enough time to produce positive results, similar to the Virginia team,” he said. 

There were a lot of upsets, especially in the early rounds. This year the lowest ever seeds were in the Sweet Sixteen, with Oral Roberts College being the highest seed at 15 after beating the number two overall seed Ohio State and then number 7, Florida.  “I would definitely say that nobody expected them to beat Ohio State. It’s unfortunate that nobody predicted that game, but I love to see upsets even though it’s against my bracket,” junior Jordan Gruel said.

One of the other Cinderella stories was UCLA. They were an 11 seed entering the tournament. After multiple hard fought games they found themselves in the Final Four against Gonzaga, however they lost to them on a buzzer beater in overtime to end their run. 

From the beginning, one of the favorites this year was Gonzaga, who was led by the number one recruit Jalen Suggs. 

“I feel that they were the team to beat this year. They were the number one team in the country for a while now, and with the up and down year for most teams that says a lot. They are a young team with lots of skill, I didn’t think they would be beat,”  sophomore Javon Murry said.

Unfortunately Murry was not correct. Although Gonzaga did play in the Finals against Baylor, Baylor came out of the gates shooting lights out. They established the lead early in the game, and never let up. They kept the game at a 10+ point margin the whole game, with a final score of 86-70. 

“I felt that the game felt closer than it actually was. I thought that Gonzaga was going to make a run in the second half and make it a closer game. Unfortunately it didn’t happen. Baylor was unstoppable on the offensive end,” senior Evan Taft said.