Peacock Madness and More
A Fifteen Seed, The St. Peter’s Peacocks, made it to the March Madness Sweet Sixteen
The month of March is sure to bring a lot of things: spring, daylight savings time, and madness. The men’s NCAA tournament has begun, with the first game of the tournament already busting many brackets. As the first and second round have finished and the Sweet Sixteen continues on, let’s take a look at some of the highlights from the tourney.
Firstly, let’s address the elephant in the room. A fifteen seed has made it to the Sweet Sixteen for the second year in a row. Last year Oral Roberts University brought down two powerhouse teams in Ohio State and Florida. The St. Peter’s Peacocks are looking to be the first fifteen seed that make it to the Elite Eight after beating arguably the best two seed in Kentucky, as well as seven seed Murray State. Doug Edert is leading the Peacocks’ run, scoring twenty and then thirteen points, respectively. St. Peter’s is set to play three seed Purdue Friday night.
Two out of four twelve seeds also advanced into the second round, but neither Richmond nor New Mexico State were able to make a push to the Sweet Sixteen. Michigan defeated six seed Colorado State as well as three seed Tennessee to face my personal champion in the Sweet Sixteen, two seed Villanova. Tenth seed Miami and eleventh seed Iowa State are set to face each other after upsetting their way into the third round. These teams, on top of St. Peter’s, round out the double-digit seeds who were able to make it into the Sweet Sixteen.
The vast majority of brackets were broken after St. Peter’s shocking upset of Kentucky, but there were some perfect ones still floating around. Unfortunately, the last perfect bracket was busted after Iowa State’s upset win against LSU. This tied last year’s amount of games before everyone’s bracket was busted, twenty-eight.
Speaking of upsets, eight seed UNC was the first team to take down a one seed in Baylor, propelling them to their Sweet Sixteen game against four seed UCLA. Another one seed, Arizona, fell Thursday night to fifth seed Houston after almost losing an overtime game against TCU last weekend.
These are just a few of the events that have already occurred during this year’s tournament, and there are plenty more storylines to be sure to keep your eye on as the madness continues. Whether your team is out or in, the rest of this tournament is certain to excite.