By Alec Arroyo
Just when you think the tournament has become stale, the Madness ropes you right back in.
After one of the most predictable opening weekends in recent years, the NCAA Tournament’s second weekend has come back with all of the excitement that was missing from the first two rounds.
The fun of March Madness is the uncertainty of each and every single matchup, and the craziness that ensues from bracket-busting upsets.
Going into March each year, us college basketball fans fill out our brackets and discuss with each other about who each of us had in our Final Four. (I had Duke, Texas Tech, UNC and Tennessee, so you can see how well that is working out for me.) After the first weekend, it felt like we were getting robbed of the unpredictability.
The opening weekend gave us no major upsets of a 1-, 2- or 3-seed, and for the most part, these teams were not even in danger of losing.
The quality of these games did change, however, once we hit the Sweet 16.
Over the past weekend, we have seen three different upsets, two of which were No. 1 seeds going down. Even the games that we prayed would end in an upset — like Duke vs. Virginia Tech — were exciting and kept the viewers on the edge of their seats until the final buzzer.
These aren’t your historic upsets like No.16 UMBC over No.1 Virginia in the first round from last season, but they are, however, still very fun and exciting to watch until the very end.
Purdue vs. Virginia was proof of that. On March 30, these teams were going back and forth, and even though Virginia won and saved themselves from being upset, the ending was electric.
So far, Texas Tech and Virginia have punched their ticket to Minneapolis and the Final Four, and all we can do is hope for insanity with the few games we have left.
Get prepared for next weekend, when we find out who gets to cut down the nets.
