This NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament has certainly been the maddest anyone has witnessed in recent memory.
Upsets, memorable performances and shocking meltdowns have always been a part of this three-week-long tournament. Everyone remembers — or should at least know of — Chris Webber’s famous mistake of taking a timeout that his Michigan team did not have in the national championship game against North Carolina in 1993. Webber and the rest of the Fab Five would go on to lose the game.
Two years ago, Northern Iowa blew a 12-point lead with 35 seconds left to Texas A&M, eventually losing its ticket to the Sweet 16 in double overtime.
This season marks the 10th anniversary of Mario Chalmers’ game-tying three-pointer for Kansas in the dying seconds of the national championship game, which the Jayhawks went on to win over Derrick Roses’ Memphis team. This year Kansas has made it back to the Final Four for the first time since 2012.
This edition of the madness has gone to another level. For the first time ever, a No. 16 seed defeated a No. 1 seed. The University of Maryland, Baltimore County — winners of the American East conference tournament — made it to the dance and beat not just one of the four No. 1 seeds, but the top seed, overall favorite, Virginia.
Not only did the Retrievers get to the dance and beat the Cavaliers, they beat them by 20. The teams were tied at 21 at halftime, and the underdogs’ fast pace, and excellent shooting, saw them pull off one of the tournament’s greatest upsets.
There have been 13 upsets during this tournament. Four of those are by No. 11 seed Loyola University Chicago — the first three wins came by a combined four points. The Ramblers beat No. 6 seed University of Miami 64-62, then No. 3 University of Tennessee 63-62, and then No. 7 University of Nevada, Reno 69-68. They beat No. 9 Kansas State University 78-62 in the Elite Eight, and will now take on No. 3 University of Michigan in the Final Four.
All of these upsets and feel-good stories are a reminder of one thing that holds true in all sports: Working your hardest and giving your all from start to finish.
While doing the preview story for the Camp Verde High School softball team in February, head coach Henry Smith said something that stuck with me. It was something that I always held on to during my time as an athlete as well.
Put simply: Try your hardest every day, every practice and every game. Even if you come up short of your goal, at least you can be proud of the fact that you did your absolute best, and through the journey of sweat and pain, wins and losses, you got better because of it. Those lessons transcend sports; winning is not the end all, be all.
“We’ve had plenty of talks, understanding that in the event that we don’t make it, or we don’t win the state title, or we don’t get as far as we wish, that we’re still successful because of the hard work we put in,” Smith said.
“That’s the important thing that they all understand is hard work, is learning to be disciplined, learning to be responsible and accountable, all of those things are part of life that it’s going to take them on beyond softball.
“Our ultimate goal is to win a state championship, but in between all that stuff, that whole process, they’re learning a lot.”
Only one team can win a championship. Upsets and Cinderella stories like that of Loyola-Chicago do not happen on their own. The Ramblers got as far as they have for a reason; they worked hard and they gave their all.
Should they not win the title in Houston on Monday, April 2, they will still be remembered for what they did. All of those players will certainly be proud of themselves, too.
Office Competition
At the Larson Newspapers office, seven of us filled out brackets. Here are the standings through the Final Four [64 games played]. Like the rest of the nation, our brackets were busted quickly with the upsets of Virginia, North Carolina and Duke. The University of Arizona’s first-round loss hurt one participant in particular.
Ron Eland, Assistant Managing Editor/City Reporter, 39-25
Jake Green, Photojournalist, 38-26
Jan Marc Quisumbing, Production Assistant, 38-26
Daniel Hargis, Sports Reporter, 37-27
Makenna Lepowsky, Copy Editor, 35-29
Christopher Fox Graham, Managing Editor, 34-30
Kyle Larson, General Manager, 31-33
