After a long 12 month wait, it is finally March! We all know what that means, three long weeks of excitement, stress, late nights, and frustration. March Madness is finally upon us. For those of you who do not know what March Madness is, it is a name used in reference to the NCAA Men’s D1 College Basketball Tournament.

The best 66 teams in the country are put into one massive bracket, single elimination bracket. Some people think of March Madness as the most exciting time of the year. What makes it so exciting is that all of the top, up and coming prospects are going at it for a championship, and they all have something to prove. It is the most unpredictable tournament there is. What makes it so fun for the viewers is what is called the “Tournament Challenge.” The Tournament Challenge is a bracket that you can fill out before the tournament starts, and compete with yourself, friends and family to see whose bracket is the most correct. Every year Warren Buffet offers up 1 million dollars to anyone who completes a perfect bracket. So far nobody has ever done it, and the odds are not in their favor considering the chances of someone making a perfect bracket is 1 in 92 quintillion. 

Going into the tournament this year, there are a few dominant teams that stand out as favorites. Gonzaga is the clear cut number one team in the nation led by freshman phenom, and potential future NBA lottery pick, Chet Holmgren. Other top teams such as Arizona, Kansas, and defending tournament champs the Baylor Bears, are also looking to make a deep run into the tournament this year. Cooper Kelley said this when asked about who he expects to win the tournament, “ I could see Baylor going all the way considering how dominant they were in last year’s tournament run.”

Legendary Duke coach, Coach K is retiring after this season and is doing everything in his power to go out on top. Coach K is a winner at heart, and says, “Everybody wants to take responsibility when you win, but when you fail, all these fingers are pointing.” Coach K will go down in history as not only the best Duke head coach ever, but potentially the best college basketball coach ever. ESPN analyst Jay Bilis said this when asked about tournament expectations this year, “A bit of a crazy one, because we don’t have two dominant teams like we did last year.” Just three more days until tipoff,  and the excitement is building as we head into a potential crazy tournament.