The March Madness Break Down

March is upon us, and for college basketball fans, that means one thing: March Madness. It is a few exciting weeks of all you can watch basketball to see which Division 1 team is the best in the nation. If you are anything like I was, you know the basics: it is college basketball, and it is in March. But if you are looking to impress the basketball lovers in your life, follow along to learn everything you need to know this basketball season. 

This year, the tournament starts off on March 15^th with “Selection Sunday." When the tournament started in 1939, there were only eight teams competing, but eighty-seven years later, sixty-eight teams are now fighting for the trophy. The thirty-one teams that won their conference are automatically in, but thirty-seven teams are chosen as “at-large” bids by a committee. You may be asking yourself: Who is the committee, and how do they pick these thirty-seven teams? The committee is made up of twelve members, including conference commissioners, athletic directors and experienced administrators, chosen based on nominations from conferences. To select and to “seed” the teams, they use a meticulous voting system. Seeding for the tournament involves ranking the teams from best to worst (one to sixteen) to ensure that the top teams do not meet too early. Each seed has four teams, so, for example, in 2025, Auburn, Florida, Duke and Houston were ranked as #1 seeds. For all teams, Selection Sunday is a big day to find out whether their dream of “going dancing” is coming true, and for teams that are automatically in, to see where they rank. 

Next, in the March Madness saga, is the First Four on March 17^th and 18^th. This is where the four lowest-ranked automatic qualifiers and the four lowest-ranked at-large teams play against each other. Because the entire tournament is single elimination, if you lose, you are out of the tournament, but if you win, you have officially made it to the First Round. 

In the First Four, four teams are eliminated, leaving sixty-four teams in the First Round. Half of the teams will kick off the First Round on March 19^th, and the other half will start on March 20^th. Assuming the teams keep winning, they will advance to the Second Round, Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, and then, a dream for many, the Final Four. As you can imagine, the Final Four is intense as things heat up and anticipation rises. The next step for the winners of each match is the championship. Contrary to what you might expect, the March Madness championship will be held on April 6^th.

Why should you watch March Madness? If you asked our Owner, Johnny Birdsong, he would tell you that the best part of watching this tournament is that anyone can beat someone once. You will never be able to correctly guess who wins or who loses, because you never really know a team based on stats; it is what is in their heart and what is on the court at that moment that matters. Choose your team today, and you just might see a real "Cinderella" story! 

Key Terms:

Alley-oop: a collaborative play in basketball, when one player passes the ball and the other jumps, catches and dunks it before landing back on the court.

Assist: A pass to a player that results in that player making a basket.

Cinderella: A team that is much more successful than expected. Examples would be Villanova’s 1985 championship run, when the eighth-seeded Wildcats became the lowest seeded team to ever win the title, knocking off the heavy favorite Georgetown.

Free Throw: An opportunity for an open shot, awarded to a player as a result of a called foul. Depending on the situation, the player takes one, two or three shots from the free-throw line. Each successful free throw is worth one point

Going Dancing: Since the NCAA tournament is often referred to as the Big Dance, teams that make the tournament, either through an automatic bid or an at-large bid, are often said to "go dancing." Sometimes, quite literally. Almost every March, you'll see videos on social media from winning locker rooms, where a team and its coach will dance in a circle after clinching an NCAA tournament spot. 

Screen: When an offensive player without the ball sets themself firmly in place to separate a defender from their teammate. Players can set screens on the ball to free their ball handler from defenders or off-ball to free a teammate to cut or receive a pass.

Traveling: A violation that occurs when the player with the ball takes too many steps without dribbling. Also known as walking.