March Madness got off to a roaring start on Thursday, March 16 as Notre Dame(5) narrowly avoided an upset by 12th seed Princeton in the tournament’s first game. The first weekend continued to impress with unexpected results and upsets. Top seeded teams like one seed Villanova (1), Duke (2) and Louisville (2) all lost their second round matchups while other top seeds like Kentucky (2), North Carolina (1) and Oregon (3) were tested against their opponents.
The second weekend saw even more crazy finishes. Xavier (11) continued their cinderella run as they got to the elite eight and South Carolina (7) roared its way to the Final Four. As expected, the games were generally a lot closer and breathtaking. Chris Chiozza’s overtime buzzer beater to take his Florida Gators on to the Elite Eight was probably the craziest finish to a college basketball game since Kris Jenkins’ shot that put Villanova over the top in last year’s championship game. And then, Kentucky met with North Carolina. Malik Monk rallied the Wildcats as much as he could, but in the end, the back and forth contest ended in a last second shot by Luke Maye and a win for Carolina.
In some ways, many games this tournament has featured so far could have been the championship game, had seeding panned out differently. Nonetheless, there are now four teams that were able to escape their side of the 64-team bracket to get to this point. And as of now there is no arguing that these four are the right teams to be battling for a national title. Of course, if the games don’t turn out to be as tightly contested as expected, then the argument that Kentucky or Kansas should have made it is more disputable. And, from how the teams matchup, it looks like the final four might not be as close as people expect it to be.
Oregon vs North Carolina
Prediction: Oregon
Out of the two games, this one will be a lot closer, but not quite as gut-wrenching as the game between Carolina and Kentucky or Florida’s dramatic win over Wisconsin. Oregon struggles against teams like North Carolina that have size advantages and dominance in the paint. But North Carolina has also shown struggles guarding teams that can stretch the floor and get up and down the court in a hurry. Oregon can take advantage of Carolina’s struggles and control the tempo of the game. But, North Carolina’s coaching and consistency will keep them within striking distance throughout the game. The Tar Heels will keep things very close up until the last minute. That’s when Oregon’s Dillon Brooks, Dylan Ennis and Tyler Dorsey will unleash their late game brilliance. North Carolina has also been great late in games, but another late run after relying heavily on clutch performances seems unlikely.
South Carolina vs Gonzaga
Prediction: Gonzaga
South Carolina has made an unimaginable run so far in the tournament and the road hasn’t been easy. A win over second seed Duke was impressive enough but a blowout over Baylor and a great offensive performance over Florida’s suffocating defense only made their Cinderella story more legitimate. The problem for South Carolina is simply the team they are facing. Gonzaga is just too good on both sides of the floor and have showed their dominance in convincing victories throughout the whole tournament. Sindarius Thornwell could stir up something special for South Carolina, but Gonzaga, in all fairness, is nothing like a one dimensional Duke, an inconsistent Baylor or a simply average Florida team. In fact, throughout this tournament, Gonzaga might be the most multidimensional team on offense and the most consistent in all their performances. Not only will South Carolina have to play the way they have all tournament, but they will also have to get Gonzaga off their game.
