March Madness is the biggest month for the basketball community and NCAA fans. 64 teams qualify by winning their conference championship and are ranked by seed from 1-16. Each team hopes to come out on top after playing Round 32, Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four, and, of course, the championship. Although this month is primarily focused on the men, the women's division is coming hard this year. This year's top teams are South Carolina (1), Stanford (1), Indiana (1), Virginia Tech (1), Iowa (2), UConn (2), Utah (2) and LSU (3). 

The South Carolina Gamecocks are making their 11th straight appearance in the NCAA tournament, and won the NCAA championship last year. Coached by Dawn Staley, who won USBWA Coach of the year for the 3rd time, the Gamecocks are led by senior Zia Cooke, carrying them to their 33-0 season averaging 15.3 points per game (ppg), shooting 40% from the field and 38% from the three-point line. 

The Stanford Cardinals are coached by Tara VanDerveer and led by 6’4 junior forward Cameron Brink- who averaged 15.1 ppg, shooting 49% from the field and leading the team in rebound, averaging 10 rebounds- ended the conference season 29-5.

Now, a little closer to home, the Indiana Hoosiers, coached by Teri Moren, have advanced the Hoosiers from a 3 seed in 2022, 4 seed in 2021, and a 10 seed in 2019. The Hoosiers’ standout player, senior Mackenzie Holmes, leads the team in points, rebounds and blocks, averaging 22.3 ppg and shooting 68% from the field.

Virginia Tech is coached by Kenny Brooks. This is his first season with the Hokies, but after losing the first round last year to a 12 seed, he has helped advance them up from a number 5 seed in 2022 to a number 1 seed this year, ending their conference season 28-4. The Hokies also have a 3 category stat leader, senior Elizabeth Kitley, who leads the team with 18.2 ppg, 11 rebounds and 2.3 blocks. 

The Iowa Hawkeyes, coached by Lisa Bluder, who is in her 23rd season and has advanced the Hawkeys to making their 15th straight NCAA appearance. Losing by just 2 points to 10 seed Creighton last year, 4 category stat leader junior Caitlin Clark has come to prove herself this year, averaging 26.8ppg, 7 rebounds, 9 assist and 1 block. She's also won several awards, including 2022-23 Big Ten Player of the Year and Atlantic National Player of the Year, and is the second ever player in the Big Ten to record more than 2000 points.

UConn is always a big-name school in the Big East conference. The Huskies are coached by Geno Auriemma in his 38th season he’s taken the huskies to 11 NCAA Championships, 22 Final Fours, six perfect seasons, and 55 conference championships. He’s also been named Conference Coach of the Year 16 times. He's made these girls a pretty well rounded team, with not just 1 standout player; all the girls perform similarly, which makes for  put-together teamwork. Aaliyah Edwards, Lou Lopez Senechal, Azzi Fudd, and Dorka Juhasz are all averaging around 15ppg. Aaliyah Edwards, a junior , is averaging the most at 17 ppg and shooting 58% from the field. 

Coached by Lynne Roberts, currently in her 8th season, the Utah Utes have made their 2nd NCAA tournament appearance in over a decade. They lost last year to 2 seed Texas as a 7 seed. The Utes are led by junior Alissa Pili, a transfer from Southern California who was named Pac-12 Freshman of the year; she's a dominant forward, averaging 21 ppg and 6 reb. The Utes have also  improved their record from 21-12 last season to 26-4.

The lowest seed at #3, LSU is still a very good team who has the chance to make an upset against teams. Coached by Kim Mulkey in only her 2nd season with the Tigers, she helped guide LSU to a 30-2  record, which is one of the best seasons in the program's history. Their standout player is sophomore Angel Reese, another dominant forward averaging 23.8 ppg and 16 reb.  

Selection Sunday began March 12, 2023, and the championship will be April 2, 2023. As each team is weighing in their pros and cons, fans hope for upsets from lower seeds, or even hope for one of these top teams to win it all. How will your bracket do?

March is a special time of year. Not just because of the changing weather, the days getting longer, or it approaching the end of the school year. It's because it's March Madness, the best sports tournament there is. 64 teams compete for the NCAA championship. They are split into 4 regions of 16 teams by random draw on Selection Sunday. This is the best basketball tournament to watch. These teams are leaving everything on the court, the coaches are coaching their best, and the atmosphere is different from any other sporting event. This year's March Madness has met that criteria. Even though it's not over yet, it's been very unpredictable. Most years, you can get an idea of what teams are going to go far, but this year, Purdue, a 1 seed, losing, and Princeton, a 15 seed, making the Sweet Sixteen. It's really anyone's year.

I have been to March Madness 3 times, and have loved it each time. My first time was 8 years ago, when Kentucky had an undefeated season and played Cincinnati in the round of 32. Although the game was good, my favorite part of being there was when Kentucky's whole team was practicing half court shots and Karl Anthony-Towns made 8 in a row. I just knew Kentucky would win after that. They made it to the Final Four that year. My second and third time were in 2019 for the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight at the Yum Center. I had just gotten off the bus from our 8th grade D.C. trip, and my dad picked me up and surprised me with tickets. That night we watched Virginia play Oregon and Purdue play Tennessee. Both were nail biter games, with the Purdue v Tennessee game going overtime. Purdue won their game and so did Virginia. We were back 2 days later to watch Purdue and Virginia play.

Picture this: it's the Elite Eight, Purdue is taking on Virginia, and I'm in attendance. The YUM center is sold out and jumping. This game was like a chess match, with the teams seemingly matching one another the whole way. The game went into overtime, and by that point, all of the Yum Center's 22,000 seating capacity was on their feet. Purdue was led by Carsen Edwards, who had the greatest game I've seen in person. He had 42 points that game, with 30 of those coming from 3 pointers. He was unconscious- or couldn't miss. However, Virginia was led by Kyle Guy, dropping 25 points and coming away with the victory 80-75. Being there in person is so much different from T.V. The atmosphere really shows why March Madness games are so intense. To gain a better understanding of the game here is the link to the full game of Purdue v Virginia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRG2eulHn0k

The USL Champions League is officially back, with the first regular season games being on March 10th, 2023. Louisville City played the last match of the night at Orange County Soccer Club, who they beat last season 3-1. Louisville City was able to come out on top, matching their last meeting's scorelines. 

In the first half, Louisville City came in hot with multiple attacks on the goal. In the 4th minute, Brian Ownby, a forward for Louisville, crossed the ball across the box to Niel Mcabe, another forward, who headed it into the goal- giving Louisville an early lead in the game. But things took a slight turn for Louisville as their main striker, Cameron Lancaster, got a yellow card after kicking the ball out of frustration of a missed hand ball in the box, which would have awarded Louisville a penalty kick. Multiple other yellow cards were handed out during the duration of the first half, with a total of 4 cards in 45 minutes. That doesn't happen often. 

The other 3 yellow cards were all issued to Orange County SC for illegal tackles. As the final minutes of the half were winding down, Louisville City was mounting an attack- but it fell apart, leading to an Orange County counter attack that led to Kevin Partida shooting the ball into the top right corner and scoring, equalizing the game in the 40th minute of the first half.

After halftime, Louisville was fired up and hungry to put the ball in the back of the net once again- and it didn’t take long. In the 57th minute, Lancaster chipped the ball in while falling over after a perfect pass from Ownby. The second half demonstrated amazing defensive sets from both teams. In one instance, Sean Totsch, a defender for Louisville, blocked a goal-scoring shot and got a high five from the goal keeper Kyle Morton. Eventually, the defense did have to break through, and unfortunately for Orange County, it was theirs. In the 88th minute, Enoch Mushagalusa broke free and scored the goal that put the final nail in Orange County’s coffin, securing the victory for Louisville City.

Women’s basketball has been around for well over a century, founded by Senda Berenson Abbott, better known as the “Mother of Woman’s Basketball”. She was a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania and she and her family came to Boston in the 1800s. Her nickname came from her beginning to work at Smith College at 23 years old as a physical education teacher. Her work there gave her the opportunity to meet James Naismith after she read about the indoor game he created called basketball. Naismith then encouraged Berenson to introduce the sport to her students. 

In 1893, the first game was held at Smith College. It was a freshman vs sophomore game, organized and officiated by Berenson as she adapted some of the rules from Naismith. The final score was 5-4.  The first girls to play an intercollegiate game were 9 Stanford university students on April 4, 1896, the final score being 2-1. 

After the norms were broken that women could play a man's game, actual gameplay across different colleges began, one year after the introduction of men’s basketball. In the late 1800s and early 1900s when women's basketball was first starting up there was lots of outrage about if women could really play a man's sport. “Even Berenson worried that we might suffer from ‘nervous fatigue’ if games were too strenuous, so she adapted the rules to make it easier for women to play and more acceptable for society matrons to embrace. She divided the court into three sections and required the players to stay in their assigned areas. To insure womanly decorum among her pupils, Berenson forbade snatching the ball, holding it for more than three seconds, or dribbling it more than three times,” stated an article by Sally Jenkins. “An outcry arose that it was eroding sacred concepts of woman-hood. This masculine behavior was so scandalous a development that parents forbade their daughters to participate, and medical doctors and physical education instructors wrote long worried studies about the psychological and physical effects of the sport, calling for it to be abolished.” 

Over the years, basketball has evolved for men and women, but women mostly look back to a time when scores couldn't get past single digits- let alone a woman scoring past single digits herself. In the 1900s this started to change as more opportunities came about for women, allowing them to participate in the Olympics, AAU teams, and the WNBA. 

While there isn't really any record on the evolution of scoring, I’m sure you could infer how much it's evolved since then- remembering that, when the game was first invented, a final score was recorded at 2-1. Fast forward. Nowadays, games are surpassing well over 50 points. Also in modern times, accomplishments are a lot bigger than before, with a major one now being reaching 1000 career total points and being able to join the “1000 Point Club.”

1000 points is a major accomplishment in anyone's eyes throughout one's high school career. You see high school athletes, male and female, all around the states, getting their praise for becoming a part of the 1000 Point Club. In more recent years, girls especially have been on the rise, showing out to work their way to the 1000 Point Club. In the past 40 years here at Brown, only 19 players have successfully scored and surpassed 1000 points, only 2 of them being girls. The first Lady Bear to reach 1000 points was Dashanda Stroud in 1998, a whopping 16 years after the first person ever joined the 1000 Point Club in 1982. Since I've been at Brown, only 1 Lady Bear has joined the 1000 point club. I was fortunate enough to play on her team and be a part of the accomplishment. Madison Cockcroft got her 1000th point in 2019, over 20 years after Stroud got hers.

Girls are finally getting the love they deserve for their talents. Women’s basketball is evolving more and more in the blink of an eye, from norms being broken to the way women dress during games. This ‘22-’23 season, only 4 girls in 7th region reached their goal and achieved their 1000 points- none being from Brown- but, all in all, I believe it was a major change from how it all started. 

That's right! Boys volleyball has made its way to Brown. This idea for boys volleyball was really being pushed for by the student body this year led by sophomore Tai Couch. He helped by making petitions and getting kids to sign up.

”It looked fun. I went to a girls game, making me want to play after I realized we needed a team at brown.” Tai Couch said.

 Boys' volleyball has really been on the upswing after it got its start at a St. X and other private schools. Since then, Kentucky youth sports programs have been promoting the idea to other schools.

“Dr. Kat helped a lot with the start up, especially volunteering to be the head coach. The senior girls also helped because they thought it was dumb that the boys didn’t have a team. Justin also helped by speeding the process up.” Tai couch said when asked about the start up

Practice has already begun, running from 3:15 to 4:45 after school on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

“I think we have a strong base because of the basketball players and everyone’s motivation to win. Lots of basic drills are being done because everyone is learning." 

I had a chance to talk with Dr. Kat, Brown's Biology and Forensics teacher and the head coach of the boys and girls volleyball teams about the newly founded team. When asked about how practices were going she stated, “They are going really well, the guys know how to play. They are just learning how to play as a team.” She also said that the games start on April 18th, which will be an away game, The first home game will be on April 20th. 

The participating members on the team are freshmen Landon Dearing, Tyler Fletcher, Michael Waterbury, Austin Vitato, and Aiden Parry; sophomores Tai Couch, Jeremiah Duncan, and Jacob Mattingly; and seniors Caleb Williams, Josh Williams, and Robert Loudermilk (12th).

Come out and support your Brown school Boys Volleyball team on April 20th!

Going to the NFL is a dream for lots of football players, but only 1.6% of players make it to the league. One factor that decides this is the NFL combine. The combine is a series of drills and workouts the players have to do to see how they perform. Some basic drills are the 40 yard dash; bench press with 4 plates (225lb); vertical jump test; broad jump; 3 cone drill; and 20 yd shuttle. These drills calculate speed, strength, mobility, and versatility. However, one thing they don't calculate is a player's skill in football. They put many players at risk of injury, which can affect their draft stock. The NFL needs some form of revenue to make money in the offseason, which is why the combine is broadcasted.

The drills that are used in the combine do not correlate to the game very well for all positions. A 40 yard dash is much more important for running backs, receivers, and secondary positions of defense. Having offensive linemen run the 40 is pointless. The NFL is a very notorious company that tries to push safety under the rug, so you shouldn't have to prove your speed and strength by risking your bodily health. As seen this year, there were 3 injuries from offensive linemen running the 40 yard dash: 2 pulled hamstrings and a torn ACL. That will never happen in a game, and therefore shouldn't be a drill in which they participate. As for the jumping drills,  if you've ever watched a game of football you’ve never seen an offensive linemen jump.

If you're a top prospect, I believe you shouldn't participate in the combine. These teams have watched them play for 3-4 years, if not longer, and there is plenty of film to watch. Also, running a 40 yard is different from running in the game. In game you'll have people running and bumping into you, so if it was simulated at the combine, it would show more in game aspects, such as decision making. When a receiver lines up, for example, they are more than likely not going to run a straight line, they are going to be shifting trying to get open from the defense. At the end of the day, speed and strength don't matter as much as being able to catch the ball. Arguably the greatest receiver of all time, Jerry Rice, ran a 4.7 second 40 yard, which is considerably slow compared to the league average of 4.4 seconds for receivers. Also, receivers usually lift the least due to their position.

At the end of the day, the NFL is a business and they need to generate some revenue during the offseason. Last year, the combine generated 9.6 million dollars over the 4 days it lasted. The draft generated 133 million over its 3 days. Even if you set a record and try your hardest, it sometimes won't affect your draft stock. That's where the realization that the game is about money, not your love or dedication to the game, comes in. If anything, the NFL should pay the prospects for coming out and doing these pointless, dangerous workouts.