March Madness: Men's Tournament Weekend One Recap

 What a weekend am I right? The first four days of the Men's Tournament was absolutely insane with the sheer amount of upsets that occurred.  I knew that because the year was so different that the tournament would echo reality but I honestly didn't think it would be like this. I was listening to a podcast yesterday that is done by two former American University Basketball players Vlad Moldoveanu and Bryce Simon called Motor City Hoops; which y'all should listen too obviously these guys have great Basketball IQ. The reason I bring them up here in a College Basketball post is because they made a great point regarding chemistry on the court and how prolonged breaks due to COVID protocols were decently common this year and were discussed through out the year. In this case they were discussing how due to Virginia entering COVID protocols mid ACC Tournament and not being able to practice for 10 days prior to the start of the tournament they were at a disadvantage and were re-learning how to play together in some aspects unlike Ohio which were more in sync and thus was one of the reasons why Virginia lost in the first round.

We have our Cinderella team this year in Oral Roberts they as a 15 seed beat Ohio State 75-72 and then Florida 81-78. This is my favorite part of watching the tournament especially once my teams are out. I'm rooting for them to go as far as they can because as someone who went to a Mid Major School I love when they beat big named teams. I remember how during the historical 07-08 year when American beat Maryland 67-59 that we all knew they team was different and when Mid Major's beat Power 5 schools those wins hit so much differently. Back to this year's tournament keep going Oral Roberts and keep showing the world just how great Mid Majors are.

In the Sweet 16 we currently have 4 teams that are 10 seed or lower. We have obviously 15 seed Oral Roberts, 11 seeded UCLA, 12 seeded Oregon State, and 11 seeded Syracuse. While 3 of the 4 teams are Power 5 schools it is still pretty amazing to see these seeds keep going and winning against higher seeds. 

On Thursday I will be back to recap the first two rounds of the Women's Tournament and I can't wait.

I hope you all enjoyed this post and will keep following my love affair with sports.