March Madness is back again this year and every college basketball fan in America is excited for it to get underway. March Madness is a giant tournament comprised of the top 64 of the best college basketball teams; these teams are split into four brackets (West, East, Midwest, and South). A single elimination style tournament, March Madness is fast-paced with the first 32 games played in just two days: March 16th and 17th.

Looking at the Eastern bracket the number one seed is Villanova, claiming last year’s bracket title with a game winning three pointer. Villanova is predicted to have a relatively easy competition until they go up against Duke or Baylor. The Duke/Baylor game will be one of the toughest games of the Eastern bracket. I believe Duke will win this game but lose to Villanova, giving Villanova Eastern’s Final Four spot. The only big upset I see for this bracket is Eastern Tennessee State University (ETSU) which is a 13 seed taking down Florida which is a 4 seed.

The Western bracket holds Gonzaga as the number one seed. Now everyone always says, Gonzaga chokes in the tournament, but I don’t believe this to be true this March Madness; this year’s Gonzaga team is the best ever play in the tournament. The most anticipated game of the Western bracket will be between West Virginia (number 4) and Notre Dame (number 5). West Virginia will most likely win due to their great defense. I predict Gonzaga will be the team that moves onto the Final Four from this bracket.

Now moving onto the Midwest bracket, a pretty competitive bracket. The number one seed is Kansas which is predicted to do very well this year. However, I believe Iowa State (5 seed) could take down Kansas in the sweet sixteen. If Kansas advances against Iowa State, Louisville will be their next threat. The team that will be moving forward to the Final Four from this bracket is Louisville.

The Southern bracket’s number one seed is North Carolina. Middle Tennessee University (MTU) could be the biggest upset of this bracket by beating a team that is seeded way better than them, again. I predict MTU, which is a 12 seed, will move on and beat number 5 Minnesota. They will then be playing number 4 Butler and should be able to move on from there. After all of this though, I think MTU will lose to North Carolina. The biggest game of the Southern bracket will be number 2 Kentucky playing against number 3 UCLA. UCLA’s advantage over Kentucky is Lonzo Ball, a freshmen predicted to be a lottery pick in the next NBA draft. Ball will most likely do good things for UCLA in March Madness, bringing his team to the Final Four.

 
By the Final Four, I predict the teams to be Villanova, UCLA, Gonzaga, and Louisville. Villanova/Gonzaga will be a good game but, in the end, Gonzaga will come out on top, sending them to the championship game against the winner of UCLA/Louisville. For UCLA, I predict Lonzo Ball will become a clutch player and get UCLA through the Louisville and into the championship. The championship game will be extremely competitive between Gonzaga and UCLA, but I believe Ball will lead his team to become the National Champs.