NCAA Tournament Essay, Research Paper

Do you know what time it is? It’s March Madness, the NCAA Mens Basketball

Tournament. The time of the year when you see commercials on CBS announcing the

Road to the Final Four, the pinnacle of the college basketball year. Each year

64 teams vie for a spot in the Final Four. Teams from the East, Midwest,

Southwest, and West all compete for one spot from each division. The teams that

play for one of these spots can be classified into four different groups. The

Number 1 through 4 seeds, the Cinderella teams, the Bubble teams and the One Hit

Wonders. The Number 1 through 4 seeds make up 1/4 of the tournament. These teams

are the strongest teams in the nation and are usually figured to go to the Final

Four. The teams ranked Number 1 in their bracket have the best chance of going

to the Final Four. Since 1980 at least one Number 1seed has gone to the Final

Four. The number one seeded team has also never been beaten in the first round

of the NCAA tournament. The teams that are 1 through 4 this year, and figure to

be playing for the National Championship, are Kentucky, UMass, Purdue,

Georgetown, Cincinnati, Utah, Villanova, and Arizona. All of these teams had to

have had tremendous regular seasons and conference tournaments to be seeded so

high. On the other hand a "Cinderella" team is a team that had a so-so

regular season and upset a higher ranked team in their conference tournament.

They ride that wave of momentum into the Field of 64 and hope to upset another

higher ranked team in the first and second rounds. These teams usually don’t

last farther than the Sweet Sixteen where their season usually comes to an end.

Teams that can be classified into this group are the 10 through 14 seeds. Teams

that fall into this category are Clemson, Virginia Commonwealth, Austin Peay,

Cansius, and Santa Clara. Out of these "Cinderella" teams, many of

them were teams "on the Bubble." These teams finished with a so-so

regular season also but also had a so-so conference tournament. They had to

sweat it out and hope for other teams to falter and the selection committee to

be generous for these teams to make it. Once in the tournament these teams can

be transformed into a Cinderella team by beating two higher seeded teams. Teams

"on the Bubble" are ranked 7 through 9. The teams that can be

classified into this category or groupings are Michigan, Stanford, Bradley,

Wisconsin-Green Bay, and Eastern Michigan. That leaves the last grouping of

teams. The One Hit Wonders. Their describes them perfectly. They usually upset

one team then bow out of the tourney in the second round. The teams in this

category might prematurely be labeled a "Cinderella" team, but after

exiting the tournament in the second round they cannot be given this title.

These teams can be ranked anywhere from 6 through 15. Teams from this group are

Mississippi Valley, Louisville, Iowa, Indiana, Princeton, and Monmouth. So as

one can see there are many different ways to view the teams from the Field of

64. From the Number 1’s through Number 4’s to the One-Hit Wonders there are many

teams with a shot at winning the NCAA National Championship. You might ask,

"Which team do you feel will win the National Championship?" I feel

the National Championship will go to the Georgetown Hoyas ( a Number 2 seed )

out of the East.