Writers: Devneet and Navreen Biring
March Madness is an annual basketball competition consisting of the best sixty-eight Division 1 teams in the nation. Four brackets with sixteen seeded teams each enter the tournament bracket. These teams compete for the national championship in seven rounds, and the last round is called the Final Four.
The women’s Final Four for March Madness takes place at the Target Center in Minneapolis on Sunday, April 3rd. The competing teams will be South Carolina vs Louisville and Stanford vs Connecticut.
Players to watch: One of South Carolina’s top forwards, Aliyah Boston, will be against Louisville forward Olivia Cochran. Aliyah Boston averages 12.2 rebounds and 16.8 points per game. Olivia Cochran averages 5.1 rebounds and 8.4 points per game. Additionally, Stanford guard Haley Jones averages 7.8 rebounds and 12.9 points per game, and Connecticut guard Page Bueckers averages 4.9 rebounds and 20 points per game. On Monday, March 28th, Bueckers scored 27 points for UCONN in the overtime game against North Carolina!
The rivalry between Stanford and UCONN will soon be put to the test in the Final Four. Stanford Cardinal coach Tara VanDerveer and UCONN coach Geno Auriemma are known for their amazing coaching capabilities and are arguably two of the best women’s basketball coaches in the country. These two teams have played one another in the Final Four many times throughout the past few years.
In the men’s March Madness 2022 tournament, the Final Four consists of Kansas, Villanova, Duke, and North Carolina. Kansas will compete against a difficult Villanova team. Long-time rivals, Duke and North Carolina will compete against one another.
Throughout the men’s March Madness, there have been more upsets than expected. Upsets make March Madness fun because seeing a team that is not expected to go far is exciting. For example, St Peters, a small private college made it to the elite eight. St Peter’s run came to an end after UNC beat them. Even though they lost in the elite eight, it was amazing how a 15th seeded team made it this far in the tournament.
Devneet’s bracket was completely ruined. Millions of people created a bracket this year and after the first round of March Madness, only 3 people still had a perfect bracket for the men’s competition. Another big upset was when the number 1 seed Gonzaga lost against the number 4 seed Arkansas. Devneet knew his bracket was finished when Gonzaga lost because he had Gonzaga winning the whole tournament. After Gonzaga lost there were no perfect brackets left for the men's tournament.
The team Devneet rooted for in March Madness was the Texas Longhorns because he has relatives who live in Austin and wants to go there after high school. The Texas longhorns both had a good women's and men's team coming into the tournament. Since all the teams Devneet wanted to win were eliminated from the men’s and women’s tournaments, he is cheering for Duke and South Carolina. The reason he is cheering for Duke is that it is Coach K’s last year coaching before he retires. Coach K has coached the Duke basketball team since 1980 and is one of college basketball’s premier college coaches of all time. He currently has a record of 1202-367 with Duke.
South Carolina is another team with a great coach, Dawn Staley. She is a four-time Olympic gold medalist, winning three as a player and one as a coach. She will be leading South Carolina this weekend against a tough Louisville team.
The women’s Final Four will take place in Minneapolis; the men’s Final Four will happen in New Orleans. This weekend we will see the results in both the women and men’s brackets to see which teams will advance to the championship game.
Results: The final teams that won were Kansas for the men's bracket and South Carolina for the women's bracket. Overall, we thought it was a fun March Madness this year. We can`t wait for next year!