Start of March Madness sparks excitement around school

The ball bounces up and down on the ground, and the player looks up to see 5 seconds on the clock with their team only down by 2. They are outside the 3-point line, and time is running out with the defender all over them. The player crosses the ball over, fakes a drive to trip up the defender and shoots the 3.

March Madness is a crazy month for basketball fans because college basketball playoffs have finally begun. Fans eagerly make brackets, attempting to predict who the final two teams standing will be. Other than that, they sit and watch teams compete every week. First, the competition starts off with 64 teams. Then it is cut down to 32 teams. Then the tournament begins to get heated because there is the Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight and the Final Four. After all that, there’ll only be two teams remaining, and they play an intense game for the national title.

ESPN has a top 25 AP poll ranking system in which it ranks all of the D1 teams based off of their stats. According to their list and starting from No. 1, the week 18 top 25 teams in the nation for NCAA Men’s Basketball are Kansas, Michigan State, Villanova, our very own Virginia at No.4, Xavier, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Oregon, West Virginia, Indiana, Miami, Utah, Purdue, Louisville, Arizona, Kentucky, Texas A&M, Maryland, Duke, Iowa, Iowa State, Baylor, Texas, California and SMU.

“I love Maryland,” middle school math teacher Mark Purdy said. “I like Virginia, too, but since I went to JMU, I’m technically not supposed to like Virginia.”

The week 18 top 25 AP poll rankings (starting at No.1) for NCAA Women’s Basketball are UConn, which LBSS alum Natalie Butler, plays for, Notre Dame, South Carolina, Baylor, Maryland, Oregon State, Texas, Louisville, Ohio State, UCLA, Arizona State, Kentucky, Stanford, Syracuse, Mississippi State, Michigan State, Florida State, DePaul, Texas A&M, Miami, South Florida, Colorado State, West Virginia, Oklahoma and Florida.

In March, the official NCAA selection committee will decide who gets to compete in this tournament. It is guaranteed that a team will get into the tournament if they are the champions of their conference. In the D1 NCAA Basketball league, there are a total of 32 leagues. They are American East, American Athletic Conference, Atlantic 10, Atlantic Coast, Atlantic Sun, Big 12, Big East, Big Sky, Big South, Big Ten, Big West, Colonial Athletic, Conference USA, Horizon, Ivy League, Metro Atlantic Athletic, Missouri Valley, Mountain West, North East, Ohio Valley, Pac-12, Patriot League, Southeastern, Southern, Southland, Southwestern Athletic, Summit League, Sun Belt, West Coast and Western Athletic.

The rest of the teams will enter the tournament based off a pick from the selection committee. They will choose the best and most-deserving teams in the league.

This day is called Selection Sunday for men and Selection Monday for women. It will be on March 13 for men’s basketball and March 14 for women’s basketball. On this day, the men’s and women’s committees will decide who will play in the tournament and place them in brackets, deciding who will play each other in March Madness.

When the teams are selected, fans begin making brackets, guessing who’s going to win each game and who the last two teams standing will be.

Purdy has his students do brackets if they want to. It’s a fun class activity he does with his kids, and he incorporates a probability and statistics lesson into the activity.

His prediction, “Maryland versus Oklahoma,” Purdy said.

The tournament starts March 15 for men’s basketball and March 18 for women’s basketball, and the championships are April 5 for women’s basketball and April 4 for men’s basketball. Make sure you tune in to watch the excitement happen.