Written by: Liam Schulte

Since its inception of the 64-team format for the NCAA basketball tournament in 1985, the college basketball tournament has wowed fans; year in and year out. Even when a fan’s favorite team misses out on the cut, there’s still so much excitement to be enamored with.

Held from the middle of March to the beginning of April, people clear their schedules to be sure they can catch every single upset, triumph, game winner, and everything else that comes with being an NCAA basketball fan. 

This year, sixty-eight teams for both the mens and womens divisions got their chance for the NCAA tournament championship trophy. After the First Four games, the stage was set: 64 teams preparing to win six games in a row to etch themselves into basketball history.

The men’s tournament started off with a bang when 11-seed Duquesne, a school of around 5,000 people, defeated six-seed BYU, a BIG12 school that played in arguably the hardest conference in basketball this year. The upsets kept rolling when another 11-seed in Oregon defeated South Carolina in the first round. A day later, the Yale Bulldogs, a 13 seed, came into a dogfight against the mighty Auburn Eagles. Led by junior John Poulakidas and his 28 point game, the Bulldogs reigned victorious, 78-76.

Yet, none of those upsets came close to the 14-seed Oakland Golden Grizzlies vanquishing a true blue-blood of college basketball: the Kentucky Wildcats. With their long history of amazing players such as 2024 NBA all-stars in Lakers forward Anthony Davis, 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey, and Suns guard Devin Booker, victory for the Wildcats against Oakland, a school in Michigan located in the Horizon League, seemed inevitable.

But, the Golden Grizzlies had a secret weapon: Jack Gohlke. The senior splashed in ten three-point shots to prevail in a David vs. Goliath-like matchup, 80-76. His shooting also came up big in a second round tango with 11-seed North Carolina State, where he cashed six threes. Along with junior Trey Townsend’s thirty points, they fought to the end, in the end being bested against the Wolfpack, 79-73.

After the first round, over half of the participating teams were eliminated, which is one of the main critiques of the tournament, as many dub it the “tournament of losers”. However, it also adds an element of excitement to the tournament, as so many games sometimes can even overwhelm the biggest of fans.

The games kicked back up with matchups on March 23rd, including a Texas-Tennessee showdown of orange. After a game largely controlled by the Tennessee Volunteers, the Longhorns began to fight back. They cut the lead down to one with 36 seconds left, but were unable to pull through for the victory, with the Volunteers winning 62-58.

In Indianapolis, Indiana, the two-seed Marquette Golden Eagles sought a victory over the ten-seed Colorado Buffaloes. It looked as if they were going to do so, as they took a double-digit lead to go into the second half with. But, inch by inch, the Buffaloes clawed back. Senior Tristan da Silva, junior KJ Simpson, and freshman Cody Williams pushed back, eventually tying the game with a da Silva three with 4:03 left in the second half. It seemed as if Colorado was going to pull off the upset and advance to the Sweet Sixteen.

Then, Tyler Kolek happened. Scoring or assisting five of the last seven points, the senior guard showed why he deserves to be a first round pick in the upcoming NBA draft with his elite defense and IQ late in the game, stealing and keeping the lead until the end. Kolek and Marquette advance, 81-77.

Down in Memphis, Tennessee, a shootout between two Texas teams came down to the wire. One-seeded Houston, looking to create a new narrative after a tough loss to Miami last year, faced off against a solid Texas A&M team. After a back and forth first half, Houston pulled ahead during the beginning of the second, taking a double digit lead. But the Aggies would not stop fighting, as senior Tyrece Radford began to heat up and got his team within three with less than a minute left. With one second on the clock, Radford swung the ball over to senior Andersson Garcia, who put up a three that sunk to take the game to overtime.

After a thrilling 40 minutes of pure basketball, the fans were treated to an overtime period. However, the trend from the end of the second half did not pertain to the overtime. The Houston Cougars pulled off a tough game, led by sophomore Emanuel Sharp, who had 30 in a 100-95 thriller.

The second round left no disappointment to the fans, and the Sweet Sixteen looked to capitalize on what had been a great tournament already. After the players got a little under a week of rest and preparation, they were primed to lead their teams to the Elite Eight. The lights turned back on, brighter than ever, on March 28th.

After six-seeded Clemson controlled and eventually defeated a fast-paced 2-seed Arizona team, 77-72, the stage was set for a rematch of the championship game from last year, where San Diego State and Connecticut faced off, with the UCONN Huskies defeating the Aztecs to crown themselves as the 2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball champions.

However, the Aztecs looked to flip the story from last year against a dominant UCONN team that went 28-3 in the regular season. They started off well, exchanging blows with the juggernaut one-seeded UCONN team, as they found themselves down by only four with a little more than two minutes left in the first half. However, UCONN took off like a rocket and went on a 18-6 run to increase their lead to 16. From there, they put on autopilot, coasting using their size advantage at the rim to out rebound SDSU by 21 and finish the game, winning 82-52. Freshman guard Stephon Castle recorded a double-double, leading his team to the huge victory.

Out in sunny Los Angeles, two schools with rich history in their basketball programs, 1-seed North Carolina and 4-seed Alabama, faced off in a SEC vs. ACC conference battle.

The game started off in UNC’s favor, with the Tarheels getting to a double-digit lead with six minutes elapsed in game time. However, Alabama, led by their seven-foot senior Grant Nelson, fought back and got into the 14-minutes mark in the second half up by two. From there, it was back-and-forth basketball, as seven score changes highlighted the second half. 

With UNC up by one with about a minute left in the game, they just needed to hold off the Crimson Tide for a couple more possessions. However, Grant Nelson did not let them go down easy. Nelson scored the final five points to seize the lead back for Alabama, finishing off the contest winning, 89-87.

After the big win, Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats emphasized his team's preparation for their next game in the Elite Eight against the Clemson Tigers.

"We've got a short-lived celebration. I told them they can celebrate for about 30 minutes. As soon as the media is out of the locker room, we've got to get moving on to Clemson," Oats said in a postgame interview.

The day after on the 29th of March, at American Airlines Center, the home of the Dallas Mavericks, another Texas team, the 1-seed Houston Cougars, would be facing off against a true blueblood of the sport: the 4-seed Duke Blue Devils. The Cougars got off to a strong start, leading the game for much of the first half, but Duke stormed back, sliding into the second half with a 23-22 lead in what looked more like a gritty high school championship game, with both teams doing their best to lock up each other's star players. The Blue Devils kept their lead rolling on, but the Houston team would just not go away, and with about four minutes left in the game, one possession divided the two.

Both still kept up their defensive ways, but after made jumpshots by senior Jeremy Roach and sophomore Tyrese Proctor, the Blue Devils hung on until the end, slaying the Cougars, 54-51.

After an injury with 6:38 left in the first half, All-American senior guard Jamal Shead went down with an apparent ankle wound. He did not return to the game. After the heartbreaking loss, Shead expressed his anger, stating: “I hate that it ended like this…it would have been different if I could have at least limped around a little bit and fought a little bit.”

After the Sweet Sixteen, less than 12% of the 68 teams were left to be known as the best. By this time, every espn.com men’s NCAA tournament bracket had been busted, which is no surprise, as the mathematics are certainly not in anyone’s favor. If you were to fill out a bracket, picking each team by flipping a coin, the chances of you getting a flawless prediction would be 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808. Wow. But most people who fill out a bracket pick their teams based on what they had seen during the year, which has to give them much better odds, right?

Well, yes and no. The odds do significantly increase in one's favor, but a 1 in 120.2 billion chance, according to NCAA.com, isn’t quite what one might be looking for. Gregg Nigl owns the records for the most games accurately predicted in a verifiable NCAA men’s tournament, where he guessed 49 games correctly in 2019 until a Sweet Sixteen overtime game between Purdue and Tennessee ended his streak.

Now, in the last two days of March, the stage was set for four incredible games in the Elite Eight. Illinois vs. UCONN and Clemson vs. Alabama on the 30th; Tennessee vs. Purdue and NC State vs. Duke the day after.

Starting off the action-packed slate was Illinois vs. UCONN. The Fighting Illini kept pace with the one seed Huskies in the first quarter, being knotted at 23 a piece with around two minutes left in the first half. However, their poor shooting performance wasn’t going to hold up against a powerhouse like UCONN. UCONN’S steady scoring and defense in the second half allowed them to go on a 30-0 run and win the game easily, 77-52.

On the same day back out in LA, the Crimson Tide faced off against the Tigers, which has been seen plenty of times in the sports world recently, namely in football, where the two powerhouses continuously face each other in the NCAA Football finals.

The game started out with Clemson roaring ahead to gain a 13 point lead by the 10 minute mark in the first half. However, Alabama is an incredible shooting team, and they splashed three pointer after three pointer to claw their way back into the game and went into the second half up by three. From there, senior guard Mark Sears pushed his team to a larger lead, eventually winning the matchup, 89-82.

After the big dub to advance to the final four, Sears was filled with emotion. “Man, just feeling a lot of emotion…being from their state of Alabama and to do it with this group of guys, it’s amazing,” Sears remarked.

Only a day after, fans were treated to more matchups between great teams, with the game between two in-state rivals, Duke and NC State headlining the night. The Blue Devils got hot out of the gate, and led by their star freshman Jared McCain, they got ahead of the Wolfpack and dominated the first portion of the matchup.

Nonetheless, the double DJ’s for NC State, big man DJ Burns and guard DJ Horne did not let their team quit. Their team forced Duke phenom center Kyle Filipowski into a bad night where he shot only 3-12 from the field and had five personal fouls. With that, all the wolfpack needed was a 30-point performance from DJ Burns and they rode him to a 76-64 victory.

After a resounding Purdue victory in the East, the stage weas now set for the Final Four. Players and coaches alike dream of the chance to play against the best tyo complete their run and be crowned champions, men and women alike.

Out in the women’s division, the Final Four was as exciting if not more than the men’s division. Possibly the greatest college basketball player ever Caitlin Clark and her Iowa squad faced a tough foe in prodigy Paige Bueckers and her tough UCONN Huskie team. In addition, the undefeated South Carolina Gamecocks and legendary coach Dawn Staley looked to power their way through the NC State women’s team, who was also representing their school, just like the men.

On April 5th in Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, the Hawkeyes faced the Huskies. Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers exchanged buckets throughout the first two quarters, with the Huskies leading by 6 going into the half. However, tons of concentration on Caitlin Clark began to do UCONN no good, as sophomore Hannah Stuelke began her big scoring night as she pushed her way to 9 FGM and had her team up by two going into the last seconds. 

UCONN began to run a play, looking to score in the final seconds, when a hugely controversial offensive foul led to Iowa sealing the victory. All kinds of fans sounded off on social media. Sports analyst Josh Reynolds gave his opinion on the call, tweeting that, “it was legitimately one of the worst offensive foul calls I have ever seen…”. Still, the foul remained, and the Hawkeyes moved to the finals.

On the other side of the tournament, the Gamecocks handled business easily, not allowing NC State to have a chance as they moved on after a statement win, 78-59.

Now, the stage was set. Would Caitlin Clark finish off one of the greatest individual sports seasons anyone has seen, or would the Gamecocks finish their flawless record? Back in Cleveland, that title was soon to be decided as the two teams squared off on April 7th, 2024.

Iowa started off big, as they took a lead behind Clark and her awe-inspiring shooting. They led the game by 7 when the Gamecocks came storming back behind unsung hero freshman Tessa Johnson, who despsite averaging only 6.6 points for the whole season, came up huge as the leading scorer for her team.

After taking a lead late into the second, the experienced South Carolina team never let Iowa pull back in, expanding their lead and eventually sealing their perfect season victory, 87-75.

And not soon after, many fans wondered what was next for Iowa star Caitlin Clark. She obviously would be the 1st selection in the 2024 WNBA draft, but a multi-million dollar offer was on the table from rapper Ice Cube to join his BIG3 league, where she would compete against men. She ended up deciding to go the WNBA path, but many fans still want to see her ball against the men.

Back out in the men’s division, two matchups, Purdue vs. NC State and UCONN vs. Alabama took place on April 6th, 2024 at State Farm Stadium in Phoenix, Arizona. With around 70,000 people in attendance, the stars were bound to shine, as Purdue and NC State started off the evening. Player of the Year Zach Edey got Purdue started off early, as they clinched the lead early. Along with assistance from senior guard Lance Jones, they kept the lead as Edey kept attacking DJ Burns in the paint. It was hard for Burns to keep up with Edey’s lengthy standing at 7’4, and Purdue ran away with the victory, 63-50.

Right after, two high-scoring teams in UCONN and Alabama looked to play Purdue in the NCAAM championship game. The game was expected to be a battle, and it was, as the two teams went back and forth in the first half, with the Huskies going into the second with a 44-40 lead. Guards Mark Sears (Alabama) and Stephon Castle (UCONN) exchanged tough shots in the first half, but who was going to come up clutch in the second? 

Donovan Clingan. The sophomore center came in huge with his dominant size and strength as he played bully ball against a much smaller Alabama team. His 8-14 shooting from the field hoisted the Huskies to a double-digit lead, which they kept until the end. They won the hearts of admiring fans as well as the game, 86-72.

Purdue. UCONN. One looking to defend their title, another looking to win their first. After being doubted all tournament for their recent struggles, Zach Edey and Purdue were finally in the big dance. The domination of the UCONN Huskies never faltered all tournament, and they hoped the trend would continue. 

On April 8th, 2024, both teams looked to make history. They didn’t let each other take control of the game, as it was back-and-forth early, as UCONN had a slight edge thanks to their depth and defense. UCONN then took the lead late into the first, and they never looked back. With 7’2 Donovan Clingan holding his own against Edey, the Huskies kept building upon their lead, which the Boilermakers had no chance of matching. After their dominant figure the whole tournament, the UCONN Huskies repeated their championship season, only losing three games the whole year, and eventually raising their banner on a 75-60 statement victory.

“I think it’s just the best two-year run in a very, very long time, just because of everything we lost from last year’s team,” said UCONN coach Dan Hurley. “To lose that much and do it again, it’s got to be as impressive a two-year run since at least prior to Duke,” he stated. Comparing themselves to a blueblood like Duke, sports media and fans around the world raised the question: is UCONN a blueblood of NCAA Basketball? Well, it’s hard to see why not, and a back-to-back run has them in numerous people’s books as one of the greatest programs to ever do it.