College Basketball has arrived!!!
Today I am going to take a detour from the usual talk about sports in the professional ranks and talk about the college level of sports, particularly the college basketball.
I have always loved college basketball it is one of my all time favorite sports. In this blog I will give a brief explanation of how the tournament works as well as a recap of the road taken to the National Title by the defending National Champion North Carolina Tar Heels
I will start with the NCAA tournament information. The NCAA tournament often referred to as march madness is the postseason goal for all the teams who play division one basketball. The number of teams that make the field is 68. The first 60 teams are safe and get a birth into the round of 64 but there are eight teams who have to earn a spot in that group. The way that the teams in the eight earn a spot is there are four games and the winner of those games will make it into the tournament. After the games are completed and the field of 64 is set the format of the field is a single elimination where with one loss and you are out. The names of each round are the round of 64, the round of 32, the Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final 4 and the National Championship games. To win the National Championship ,or cut down the nets as some say, a team has to win 6 straight games with each round getting tougher and tougher as it goes on.
The defending National Champion is the University of North Carolina (UNC). The Tar Heels had a tough road to the title having gone through Texas State an easy win, Arkansas a game that could have very well gone in favor of the Razorbacks but UNC pulled out in the end. The next opponent in the Sweet 16 was the Butler Bulldogs a game that was not as close as the 12 point margin made it out to be UNC dominated the game. In the elite 8 the game against Kentucky was perhaps the best game in the tournament. The game was close throughout neither team ever getting a lead that wouldn’t be erased. The final 10 seconds of the game featured non stop action. UNC leads 73-70 when Kentucky freshman Malik Monk drains a 3 pointer to tie the game. UNC inbounds the ball Junior Theo Pinson runs the ball up the court driving to the basket before kicking it out to Sophomore Luke Maye who buries the shot with 0.3 seconds to go to send the Tar Heels to the Final Four. This was the 20th time that UNC has reached a the Final Four which is the most all time.
In the Final Four the Tar Heels took on the Oregon Ducks. The ducks would come out hitting hard leading the Tar Heels 30-22 late in the first half before the Tar Heels would respond to lead at halftime 39-36. North Carolina would extend the lead to 9 in the second half but the ducks would fight back leading to the final seconds of heart racing basketball. UNC leads the 77-76 and can ice the game with a pair of free throws. Joel Berry misses both and the heels rebound with 4 seconds left off the second miss and survive to advance to the National Championship game to take on the Gonzaga Bulldogs.
North Carolina vs Gonzaga for the title was a battle of David vs Goliath. The Tar Heels were making their 11th appearance in the title game having won 5 (or 6 depending on who you ask) national titles. The Bulldogs were making their first appearance in the title game. The game was a back and forth battle both teams leading by eight points before having the other team erase that and retake the lead. The game was close until the end. The Bulldogs would lead 65-63 with just over a minute and a half remaining but the Tar Heels would not let the title slip away they held Gonzaga scoreless the final minute and a half while going on a 9-2 run to take the title 71-65. It was the sixth (or seventh depending on who you ask) for the Tar Heels which is the third most all time behind the UCLA Bruins’ 11 and the Kentucky wildcats 8.