This March will kick off the 86th March Madness NCAA Tournament, 68 elite college teams from all around the country are invited to compete in “The Dance”. The first four games are amongst the last four automatic qualifiers and last four at-large bids. The winners of these games will be teams 61-64, ending off the list of teams continuing in March Madness. The 64 teams are broken up by division: South, Midwest, East, and West. Each division has 16 teams, with every division having a 1-16 seeding system. Next are the First and Second Rounds, often called the Round of 64, and Round of 32. Finally, the famous Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four, and Championship Game.
Teams to look out for will be the Auburn Tigers (No.1), Duke Blue Devils (No.2), and FL Gators (No. 4). Houston and TN are the other two teams rounding out the top five ranking, at No. 3 and No. 5 respectively. Some notable victories among the top five teams also happened this year, with Duke beating Auburn 84-78, Florida beating Auburn 90-81, Auburn beating TN 53-51, and Auburn beating Houston 74-69.
Auburn is the favorite to win it all this year. However, they were recently upset by No. 22 Texas A&M, losing 72-83. With that loss, they have a record of 27-3, now tied with Duke. Senior Johni Broome has been the leading proponent for Auburn this season, averaging 18.0 points and 10.7 rebounds per game.
Beyond the teams there is a brewing rivalry between two of the favored teams best players, Cooper Flagg at Duke and Johni Broome at Auburn. These are the players to watch during the tournament and who’s expected to lead their team to victory. They are neck-and-neck for winning the national player of the year award. Flagg, who is predicted to be a future first round pick of the 2025 NBA draft, is leading slightly after an ankle injury for Johni Broome, which took him out for two games. Broome has brought the odds closer since his injury. Flagg, who is averaging 19.6 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per game, is hoping to pull away as the last week of the regular season ends and March Madness begins.
Duke and Auburn, along with Houston and now FL are the predicted No.1 seeds for The Dance, after TN’s recent loss to an unranked Ole Miss 76-78. These are the teams projected to go the furthest in the bracket.
Some sleeper picks to keep in mind when filling out brackets are Iowa State, Clemson, and Michigan State. With No.10 Iowa State (22-8) playing Auburn to a two point game, losing 81-83 after Broome tipped in a game winning layup. No.11 Clemson (25-5) recently beat Duke 77-71, No.8 Michigan State (24-5) has consistently beaten top 25 teams, such as No. 12 Wisconsin 71-62, No.13 Maryland 58-55, No.17 Michigan 75-62, and No.18 Purdue 75-66.
Oli: I am not a huge fan of college basketball but I love March Madness. Mostly I love bracket play, my family and I always make brackets and compete for the best one. Usually the winner gets rewards like not doing the dishes or people making them dinner.
I do usually try to base my bracket on the actual teams and who is good, unlike other people in my family who pick based on mascots. So, I will try to predict who I think will win, a dark horse for the tournament(Underdog team), and a team that will end up flopping in the tournament.
For the winner I think that the winner has to be Duke, at the time of writing this Auburn is coming off a loss not to a top 25 team, so I think Duke will clean up throughout the tournament. I think a flop will be Tennessee, I think they will make it to the second round and then get knocked out, as they have lost to teams that are not in the top 25. Lastly, the dark horse of the tournament I think will be Memphis, as they have kept up with top 5 teams and been able to beat other top 25 teams.
Penn: I’ve been a fan of college basketball since I started playing, every year I’ve made a bracket for March Madness. I base my bracket based off of the top few players of every team, and how they’ve performed in high pressure situations.
This year my top pick to win March Madness will be Duke, but I also acknowledge that Florida and Auburn have very high chances to win. Historically, Houston hasn’t performed the best under pressure, especially late in the bracket, so I won’t be picking them to go further than the Sweet Sixteen. My sleeper pick for the tournament will be Michigan State, as they’ve proven consistent against top talent.
