March Madness is one of my favorite times of year, and this year I kept a day by day running journal of each game, highlight, and big moment as the tournament unfolded. With the Final Four coming up this weekend, let’s look at how we got here.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s back. The weather is warming up, spring is here, and the greatest tournament in the history of sports is back. Slam dunks, buzzer beaters, overtime thrillers, upsets, Cinderella stories, it’s all back, and brackets are ready to be destroyed. Who will hoist that trophy above their head on April 7th?

With the bracket being released, there are some things to go over and analyze. The first glaringly obvious thing is Louisville being an 8 seed? For a team that is AP #10 and made the championship game in their conference, being an 8 seed is highway robbery. Not to mention, Clemson, the team that Louisville beat in the ACC tournament, is a 5 seed! Another thing to notice is Kansas being a 7 seed, the lowest seed Kansas has been under Bill Self. They match up against 10 seed Arkansas, with an incredible coaching matchup of Bill Self vs John Calipari. Some dark horses in the tournament could be 11 seeded Drake, 12 seeded McNeese, or my favorite upset, 13 seeded High Point. Finally, before the games start, my final four predictions are: Michigan St vs Florida and Duke vs Houston, with Florida beating Duke in the national championship.

First round highlights:

• Best game: #10 Arkansas beats #7 Kansas 79-72
  • There were a lot of great games in this first round and a good amount of closer scores, but the reason for this being the best game is the coaching matchup. When you have two hall-of-famers in Bill Self and John Calipari going head to head, you know it’s going to be a great game, and it was.
• Best performance: Jamiya Neal of Creighton – 29 pts/12 reb/6 ast
  • Not a lot of people had this Creighton team beating Louisville in the first round, especially with it pretty much being a home game for the Cardinals. But Jamiya Neal blocked out the haters and went out there and ruined some brackets in the first game.
• Best team: #1 Duke – beat #16 Mount St. Mary’s 93-49
  • This was incredibly hard to choose between Duke and Florida, but I think the better team in the first round was Duke. Allowing fewer than 50 points in any college basketball game is impressive, but also almost scoring 100 points too? Duke very well could have an easy run to the Final Four, especially with Cooper Flagg back.
• Best upset: #12 McNeese beats #5 Clemson 69-67
  • After scoring an economical 13 points in the first half, Clemson starts to claw their way back in the 2nd half. But the aura from Amir Khan was too much, and McNeese gets the upset.

Other 1st round highlights:

• Watch out for Gonzaga
  • The Zags obliterate #9 Georgia 89-68 and could give Houston some trouble.
• Drake Sweet 16 or Elite 8 run?
  • #11 Drake upsets one of the better SEC teams, #6 Missouri, and will face #3 Texas Tech in the 2nd round.

• High Point’s run ends
  • So, High Point did in fact NOT make the Sweet 16, falling short to Purdue 75-63
• Shootout in round 2?
  • Two of the best shooting teams in the country, #3 Wisconsin and #6 BYU, will face off in the 2nd round for a chance to play in the Sweet 16.

2nd round highlights:

• Best game: #4 Maryland wins at the buzzer against #12 Colorado St 72-71
  • So far, this tournament was shaping up to be pretty boring. Not a lot of upsets, no overtime games, and no buzzer beaters. Until Maryland’s Derik Queen clutched up and made a floater to give Maryland the win and their first trip to the Sweet 16 since 2016.
• Best performance: Caleb Love of Arizona – 29 pts/9 reb/4 ast
  • Arizona is a team that doesn’t have a ton of success in the tournament, and against a team like Oregon, most people didn’t have Arizona winning this game. But with a performance like this from Caleb Love, Arizona holds on to beat Oregon 87-83 and will face a dominant Duke team in the Sweet 16. Will Duke stay strong? Or will the Wildcats get the upset and keep dancing?
• Best team: Duke Blue Devils – beat #9 Baylor 89-66
  • The Blue Devils keep rolling! After destroying Mount St. Mary’s in the first round, Duke dismembers Baylor by 23 points in the second round to advance to the Sweet 16. This team is scary, especially since Cooper Flagg didn’t even have the most points for Duke. Tyrese Proctor showed up with a chip on his shoulder, shooting 90% from the field and 7-8 from three! As of now, it looks like nothing can stop these Blue Devils.
• Best upset: #10 Arkansas beat #2 St. John’s 75-66
  • The Hogs are hot! After beating #7 Kansas and #2 St. John’s, John Calipari and the Arkansas Razorbacks are dancing to the Sweet 16! That said, it’s hard to lose to a team that shot 2-22 from behind the arc.

Other 2nd round highlights:

• UConn and Florida nailbiter!
  • Despite being an 8-seed, UConn stayed with Florida the whole game, but Walter Clayton Jr is too clutch in March, hitting the dagger to get Florida the win, 77-75.
• Ole Miss destroys Iowa St!
  • Even though most of us saw this coming with the injury of Keshon Gilbert, it was still cool to see Ole Miss get the upset and advance to their first Sweet 16 since 2001.

Sweet 16 highlights:

• Best game: #3 Texas Tech beats #10 Arkansas 85-83 in OT
  • At halftime, everyone was thinking that Arkansas was going to keep dancing to Elite 8, but the Red Raiders had other plans. Arkansas was leading by as many as 16 points, but Texas Tech completes the comeback, sending the Hogs home. This Texas Tech team is loaded with talent, and they could very well beat Florida in the Elite 8 and make a trip to San Antonio.
• Best performance: Marks Sears of Alabama – 34 pts/8 ast/3 stl
  • Watching this game live was like something out of a video game. There’s only 40 minutes of basketball played in a game, and Mark Sears and #2 Alabama put up 113 points, easily putting themselves in the top 10 for most points scored by one team in one game. Alabama also broke the NCAA tournament record for most made threes in a single game with 25. Mark Sears had ten of his own, capping off his incredible performance.

• Best team: Duke Blue Devils – beat #4 Arizona 100-93
  • Duke keeps dancing! Cooper Flagg leads Duke to a Sweet 16 win over a tough Arizona team. Caleb Love gave it everything he had on the court, but it just wasn’t enough to stop this Duke team. They’ll match up against Alabama for a trip to the Final Four, which I think will be one of the best games of the tournament.
• Best upset: So normally there would be a team to put in this category, but there wasn’t a single upset in the Sweet 16. The Elite 8 consists of four 1 seeds, three 2 seeds, and one 3 seed.

Elite 8 highlights:

• Best game: #1 Florida beat #3 Texas Tech 84-79
  • After 30 minutes of basketball, it looked like the first 1-seed was going to be upset, but Thomas Haugh came off the bench and stepped up, hitting multiple clutch threes. Walter Clayton Jr led the team with 30 points, hitting a Steph Curry fade away three to put Texas Tech away.
• Best performance: Johni Broome of Auburn – 25 pts/14 reb/ 2 ast
  • This Auburn/Michigan St game was electric. Auburn pretty much had the lead the whole game, but every time Michigan St tried to come back, Johni Broome put the team on his back, hitting clutch shot after clutch shot.

• Best team: Duke Blue Devils – beat #2 Alabama 85-65
  • Alabama won their Sweet 16 game by twenty-five points, scoring 113 themselves. A team that is red hot from behind the arc got shut down by the Blue Devils, shooting an abysmal 25% from three. It looked like Mark Sears used up all his points in the Sweet 16, as he only had six points in this game. Duke is red hot, and it still looks like they could win the whole thing.
• Best upset: After all one seeds making the Final Four for the first time since 2008, it’s safe to say that there were no upsets in this years’ Elite 8.

Predictions for the Final Four:

In this years’ Final Four, we have an SEC matchup of the year, Auburn vs Florida, and on the other side of the bracket, we have Duke vs Houston. Florida has had some close games in this tournament, and in every one they’ve come out on top. Auburn has done the same thing, but I think Florida is flat out more talented, which is why I have Florida beating Auburn and moving on to the national championship. Their opponent? The Duke Blue Devils. This team has been scorching hot all tournament, blowing out teams left and right. Led by Cooper Flagg, it looks like this team can’t be beat. Unless, of course, you’re playing Florida. Duke’s run will end in the national championship after Florida stuns Cooper Flagg and Duke fans. College basketball runs through the SEC this year, and it’ll end with an SEC team coming out on top.