by Henry Miller | Staff Writer
With the NCAA Men’s basketball kicking off last Thursday, Whitworth students researched college basketball teams to once again try and predict the perfect bracket. The first round concluding Friday night with the most historic upset in tournament history. Number 16 seeded University of Maryland Baltimore County defeated Virginia, the number one team in the country, 74-54 A 16-seeded team had never made it past the first round of the tournament until Friday night.
“It was like the disciples hearing Jesus had risen from the dead,” said Trevor Roberts, 20,” a college basketball fan and founder of one of the largest bracket challenge on campus with over 80 participants. ESPN reported that 18.5 percent, about three million, of all brackets submitted had number one Virginia winning this year’s National Championship.
The upsets continued Saturday in the second round of the tournament with number three Tennessee losing to number 11 Loyola Chicago.
“After a performance like that you can’t not root for [Loyola-Chicago],” Roberts said.
The 2017 National Champions, the North Carolina Tarheels, were upset in the second round when they were blown out by number seven Texas A&M. The Tarheels were coming off of the schools seventh National Championship when they were shocked by Texas A&M.
“Everything is bigger in Texas. It’s the year of the upset and UNC took their matchup for granted,” Alex Mowrey said. Mowrey is the Senator for Baldwin Jenkins hall and has been an avid March Madness participant through high school and college.
With plenty of basketball to be played and the sweet sixteen teams finalized, bracket architects will watch patiently and hope their predictions are correct. Make sure to cheer on number four Gonzaga as they play in the round of 16 on March 22.