Evan Blanchard:
To be honest, it hasn’t been a year of Cinderellas. For the most part, the higher-ranked teams have prevailed. I’ll give a shout-out to the Colorado State Rams for taking the Maryland Terrapins to the wire. The Rams hit a huge three to take the lead with just about three seconds left before the Terrapins came down and won it. Freshman Derek Queen slammed the door on the Rams season with a game-winner runner, sending Maryland to the Sweet 16.
As far as disappointment goes, I can’t help but be let down by the St. John’s Red Storm. Before adjusting my bracket a couple of minutes before the games began, I had St. John’s winning it all. Is that dumb on my part? Probably, yeah. But they had such an immaculate season.
They won both the Big East regular season and tournament titles. They also had the coach of the year and player of the year in the conference. It was a historic season for St. John’s, bringing them back into the national spotlight, only to be cut short by John Calipari and the Arkansas Razorbacks. The Red Storm earned a No. 2 seed in March, but it didn’t help them when they faced off against the No. 11 seed Razorbacks.
Kurt Szymanski:
It isn’t easy to choose who’s impressed me the most so far this March. As Evan mentioned, it’s clearly not the year for Cinderellas. Heading into the Sweet 16, just one double-digit seed remains.
Still, the team that has impressed me the most so far is the Michigan Wolverines.
It’s not too shocking to most of the public that the Wolverines have made it this far in the tournament, but I was convinced they’d be first-round exits to the UC San Diego Tritons, and, to be fair, they nearly were, as Michigan won by just three points.
After a sloppy performance from Michigan against the Tritons, I was convinced their season would end to Texas A&M. But it hasn’t. In fact, the Wolverines, who were down by double digits in the second half at one point, defeated the Aggies 91-79. This fact has led to the Wolverines impressing me the most.
At this point, I think most Michiganders are hoping for an Elite Eight matchup between the Wolverines and the Michigan State Spartans, and for the sake of entertainment, I’m here for it.
While not many teams have disappointed so far in the tournament, the Illinois Fighting Illini stand out to me the most. Despite being a No. 6 seed in the Midwest quadrant of the bracket, I chose Illinois to make it to the Final Four, dousing Kentucky, Tennessee and McNeese on their way.
After some convincing wins down the stretch against Purdue and Michigan, combined with a high-scoring offense that scores 83.9 points per game and the effort down low that leads to a team securing the second most rebounds per game in college basketball, I was sold. Illinois had the markings of a great team in March.
However, my hopes that the Fighting Illini would go far were crushed on Sunday. Kentucky led Illinois the entire second half and the final 16 minutes of the first half. While this might not be the end-all disappointing game of the tournament, for me, it has been.