For many sports fans, March is one of the most exciting times of the year. This is mostly because of the NCAA “March Madness” tournament. Every year, 64 NCAA college basketball teams get put into one big, bracket style, tournament. The teams can only lose one time before they are out. All of the first round games happen on March 17th and 18th. I believe that these two days are the most exciting sports days of the whole year.

The South bracket is not the easiest one for all the teams. There are some very good teams playing each other, which should lead to very exciting games. The team that I think that will shock most people is Miami. They are ranked 3rd in the South and will eventually play the number two school Villanova. I want to say Miami will move on, but I know it’s going to be a difficult game for them. I do believe that the number one school, Kansas, will prevail and move onto the Final Four.

Now moving into the West Bracket, the number one team is Pac-12’s own Oregon, who has had a very good season. The team has 28 wins and 6 losses, with 17 of those wins coming out of the Pac-12. On the contrary, Oklahoma (the two seed) has arguably the best player in the whole tournament, Buddy Hield. In this tournament, more often than not, the great players strive and do great, which allows their teams to go far. The team from this bracket that will move on to the Final Four will be between Oregon and Oklahoma. I think it will be a very good game, but I believe that Hield will perform in clutch time and carry his team, Oklahoma, to the Final Four.

Going into the Midwest Bracket, the number one seed is Virginia. I think they will have a relatively easy time until they get to the Elite 8 (if they make it that far). The two seed in this bracket, Michigan State, is very strong, but it must play against much harder teams to get through to the Elite 8. I could see two major upsets occurring in this bracket. One could be Little Rock, a 12 seed, taking down Purdue, which is a 5 seed. The other could be Gonzaga defeating Seton Hall, a team that is very hot right now. Seton Hall is the 6 seed while Gonzaga sits at the 11 seed. Overall, the team I see moving on to the Final Four is Michigan State.

Lastly, the East Bracket is the most unpredictable of all the others. Yes, it has a very good UNC team as the one seed, but the two seed is Xavier, which I believe will not do as well as some of the other teams in this bracket. West Virginia’s defense is very good, and defense alone can take you very far. West Virginia will eventually match up against Xavier, where I believe better defense will prevail and West Virginia will move on. The 4th and 5th seed teams in this bracket (Indiana 5th and Kentucky 4th) are very good teams, and in my opinion, they should have been rated better than they were. They will most likely face off in the second round, and I believe that Kentucky will take the W and move on to the next round. That leaves UNC to play Kentucky to see who will play West Virginia in the Elite 8. I anticipate that after a very close game, Kentucky will roll on through to the Elite 8, where it will play West Virginia. There, I still believe that defense will prevail and that West Virginia will move on to take the final spot in the Final Four.

Now, between the Final Four teams, there will be great games to watch as a sports fan. The first one will occur when Kansas plays Oklahoma. Between these two very talented teams, Kansas will move onto the championship. On the other side, it will be West Virginia playing Michigan State. I predict that Michigan State will be able to pull out the Win and move on to the Championship. In the end, I believe that the champions will be the number one seed, Kansas Jayhawks.