March Madness Upsets

By: Noah B. Jack K. and Alex M.

North Carolina got their revenge this year by winning the NCAA Championship. It wasn't a surprise that North Carolina won the NCAA  championship because they were the favorite from the beginning. But this year there was a lot of upsets, and that was the big stand out, and once again nobody got a right bracket. Our group counted about 11 upsets this year in the tournament. The First round upsets were USC upsets SMU, Middle Tennessee dominates Minnesota, Xavier defeats Maryland, Rhode Island upsets Creighton, and Wichita state takes down Dayton. Next, we go to the upsetting 2nd round. The upsets were Wisconsin beats #2 team in the tournament Villanova, Xavier crushes  Florida State and moves on, Michigan edges out against Louisville, and South Carolina dominates Duke. Now, we go to the sweet 16, and the upsets were Xavier beats  Arizona coming down to the final seconds, and South Carolina gets another upset once again against Baylor. Now, we go to the final eight teams of the tournament. Oregon upsets number one seed Kansas and South Carolina upsets Florida. The first big upset of the tournament was USC beating SMU. USC hardly even made the tournament, they had to play a play in game against Providence. Not many people chose USC to move on, that was a big upset. Another big upset in the first round was Middle Tennessee beat Minnesota. Middle Tennessee has beat a lot of good teams in the last few years and upset them. Like in 2016 Middle Tennessee was a 15 seed and 2 seed Michigan State. But once again this year  Middle Tennessee pulls out another upset. Xavier shocked Maryland with their talent and skill as a 11 seed. Xavier somehow beat Maryland pretty good. Going into the 2nd round was where big upsets happened.  Going into the tournament Rhode Island was on fire, and was on a 8 game win streak. But, the bad thing was that they had to play Creighton. But, apparently that it wasn't like that to Rhode Island. Rhode Island came on to that court like they were the number one team in the country. They beat Creighton by 12 84-72. Rhode Island then stretched their winning streak to 9.   The big stand out of the 2nd round was where Wisconsin beat Villanova by 3. It was one of the best and closest games of the tournament. The score went back and forth all game, but Wisconsin barely pulled it out. Arkansas probably played their best game of the year when they played Arkansas, but lost. Arkansas lost by 7 72-65. It doesn't sound like a very close game but it was! Arkansas was either down by 1 or 2 or up by 1 or 2. North Carolina edged it out in the last few minutes. Xavier beat Maryland in the first round, but no one thought they could beat #3 seed Florida State. Apparently, there was because Xavier CRUSHED Florida State. Xavier outsmarted, played better, and had better defense. Xavier won by 25 and the final score was 91-66. Michigan was on fire going into the game vs. Louisville. Michigan was one of the best 3 point shooting teams in the country. That's what saved them in the game vs. Louisville, and Michigan made a good comeback vs Louisville and won! That was another big upset in this years tournament. Almost no one expected South Carolina to get past Marquette and Duke, but somehow they did. The game was close just like North Carolina Arkansas game it was close till the very end. South Carolina only scored 23 points in the first half. Duke scored 30 and that put South Carolina down 7 going into the 2nd half. But South Carolina wasn't done there. South Carolina scored 65 points in the 2nd half, and they more than doubled their score from the 1st half. South Carolina held Duke to 51 points, and that gave South Carolina the 88-81 win. Going into the sweet 16 we have the huge upset about Xavier upsets another team Arizona. Arizona was ranked #2 sees and Xavier was ranked a #11 seed. But yet again Xavier defeats another top team in the tournament. It was a really close game even till the buzzer. Arizona had a chance to tie but Arizona gets the missed shot and wins 73-71. Another sweet 16 upset was South Carolina takes down Baylor. South Carolina was hot going into the next game VS. Baylor. South Carolina crushed Baylor in the good sweet 16 matchup, South Carolina won 70-50. South Carolina March through the first half vs Baylor and scored 37 points, and holding Baylor to only 22. South Carolina Marched through the second half and scored 33 points and only holding Baylor to 28 which gave South Carolina the win to go to their first elite 8 appearance in school history. Kansas was the #1 seed in their region going into the game against Oregon, but they didn't know that there was an upset in their future. After the first half Oregon was up by 11, and it stayed that way in the 2nd half. The final score came out as 74-60, and Oregon had the win in the bag. South Carolina once again sealed another upset again in this tournament. South Carolina soundly defeated Florida in the elite 8 match up which gave South Carolina their first final 4 appearance in school history. In the other region North Carolina barely beat Kentucky 75-73 in their elite 8 match up to bring North Carolina to the final 4. North Carolina then beat Oregon to go to the NCAA championship. The other final 4 match up with Gonzaga vs. South Carolina match up was going to be a good game. It came down to the line with South Carolina down by 2 with 1 min left. But Gonzaga got the ball back and scored witch gave Gonzaga a 4 point lead, and won 77-73. That gave Gonzaga their first ever school appearance to the NCAA championship, so it was Gonzaga vs. North Carolina in the NCAA championship. There was many lead changes and ties in the very close North Carolina vs Gonzaga NCAA championship game. Gonzaga was up for the entire 1st half with a lead of 3 at the end of the 1st half, but North Carolina didn’t give up there. North Carolina then out scored Gonzaga in the 2nd half 39-30 and won the NCAA championship 71-65 by outscoring Gonzaga in the last few minutes of the game. North Carolina then finally had their revenge by winning the NCAA championship, it was a thriller!