After last year’s NCAA basketball March Madness Tournament was canceled, Austin Zacher, a junior from Montana studying exercise science, said he realized how sports are a privilege. Zacher explained once COVID-19 began dominating the news, the only thing a person could think about was keeping people safe.
However, Zacher said the tournament still finds a way to bring people together. He stated March Madness has always been fun, even when he was younger. He remembered when his teachers would put the tournament on television in class. His favorite memory was watching No. 15-seed Lehigh upset No. 2-seed Duke in the 2012 tournament, which he added started growing his interest in March Madness.
“At that point, I was understanding the game statistically, and that game made me a lot smarter about picking teams in my bracket,” he said. People can print or fill out a form online called a bracket to predict and track the outcomes of each game in the tournament. Participants hope their predictions will be the most accurate to claim bragging rights, and the team they pick to win March Madness takes it all.
Trey Fullmer, a senior from Alaska studying history education, said March Madness is the best time of the year for his family. “There’s nothing like it in sports,” he said.
Photo collage for March Madness. Photos by the Associated Press. Collage by Alexander Tumalip.
Fullmer added his family has always been involved in sports. For example, he said his father and uncle were high school basketball coaches. But Fullmer said March Madness is for everyone. “It’s those connections with the sport of basketball or a certain school, like Kansas or USC, that make March what it is.”
His greatest memory was getting to attend the West Regional’s first- and second-round games in 2015, featuring Arizona in Portland, Oregon. Fullmer recalled how shocked he was when his father presented him with the tickets after a Church meeting.
Fullmer added he and his father got to meet Arizona coaching legend Lute Olson at the games in Portland. He introduced himself and ended up taking a picture with his father and Olson. While it was a great memory, Fullmer said enjoying March Madness together is a pleasant distraction that takes people’s mind away from world events.
BYUH Assistant Professor Scott Springer, in the Faculty of Business & Government, said he has great memories of attending basketball games while at Utah State University, especially as an intern in Media Relations at the school’s Athletic Department.
“I helped to set up interviews and media guides as the go-between for athletes and journalists,” he recalled. “The most memorable experience I had was giving statistics to the television crews during the game.”
He said his favorite memory going to games was rushing the court after Utah State upset Utah, who was led by legendary Coach Rick Majerus on Nov. 18, 1998, according to the Associated Press via the Utah athletics website.
However, his favorite memory of the NCAA tournament was Utah’s run to the national championship game in 1998. According to Springer, he recalled how Utah defeated two higher seeds to advance to the Final Four, and eventually, the national championship game against Kentucky but ended losing 78-69 to the Wildcats.
“I read an interview with Rick Majerus some years later that said he went through every second of the final three minutes and never got it out of his mind that they had lost,” he recalled. After learning more of Majerus as a coach, Springer said, “I never saw someone be so consumed by the memory of not winning it, and it gave me more respect for him as a coach.”
Zacher said his favorite team was the 2019 Virginia Cavaliers, who won the 2019 NCAA tournament after being infamously eliminated in the first round by No. 16-seed UMBC in 2018, according to the Associated Press. The NCAA announced on March 15, known as Selection Sunday, that Virginia would enter as a No. 4 seed in the tournament.
“They just played solid basketball,” he remembered. “It was not a one-man show. They all knew what they needed to do, and they kept that loss fresh in their minds.”
Fullmer said his favorite team was the 2008 Davidson Wildcats, who made the Elite Eight led by future Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry. “No one really had them running to the Elite Eight that year,” he said.
Fullmer explained in March, people remember the one person who turned heads in the tournament. He also said Curry’s performance in the NBA is defined by what he did at Davidson. “If that team did not go to the Elite Eight, it would have been a much different story,” he said.
Springer explained how people become familiar with little-known universities like Davidson because of their accomplishments. Another team that did the same, according to Springer, was George Mason in 2006. “For a team to go that far and fly under the radar, it was awesome to see,” he recalled.
Now, Springer stated he still cheers for Utah State, even though he cheers for the BYU in Provo team and watches its games too.
He commented he was surprised the Aggies were selected for this year’s tournament, especially as a No. 11 seed. Springer also said it has been a while since Utah State has won in the First Round. According to the Utah State Athletics website, the Aggies defeated Ohio State as a member of the Big West Conference in 2001, their last win in the First Round of March Madness.
According to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, Utah State was originally predicted to be one of the “First Four Out,” which are the four best teams not selected for the NCAA Tournament. Instead, the NCAA announced the Aggies would enter the tournament as a No. 11 seed. The No. 11 seed is reserved for those teams “on the bubble,” or teams that have an equal chance of making or missing the tournament, according to ESPN.
Springer explained he believed the Aggies could at least win the March 19 first-round game versus Texas Tech. But the Aggies ended up losing 65-53. For his Final Four teams, he said Gonzaga would be there, along with two of the top four seeds.
“I’ll be also curious about where BYU ends up,” he added. “Some are saying their No. 6 seed is too high, but we’ll see.” But the Cougars lost in the first round to UCLA 73-62.
Fullmer said his Final Four teams are Gonzaga, Texas, Ohio State, and Illinois. His tip for those making tournament predictions is not to only choose schools they like. “There’s a couple of schools this year that have separated themselves, and that’s Gonzaga and Baylor,” he said.
He explained tournament play normally comes down to the guards on a team, but students should consider a team’s history as well. “Teams that made the Final Four often don’t have great post players,” he said. “It’s difficult to consistently score or run your offense through that player.”
A post player is comfortable playing with their back to the basket, explains breakthroughbasketball.com. Post players are “not afraid of contact and will come back play after play despite getting hit even when [they don’t] have the ball,” the site adds.
Zacher said he learned deciding who wins in a bracket comes down to personal preference. “There are many things to consider when doing a bracket,” he said. “In most cases, you should educate yourself through statistics or which teams are hot, but go with your gut.”
Springer said he is a big fan of the play-in games in the NCAA Tournament, otherwise known as the First Four. According to the NCAA, the First Four was introduced in 2011, expanding what was known as the Opening Round Game.
Springer explained it is interesting to him how the NCAA Selection Committee selects the No. 1 seeds accurately. He also said he follows the games closely to see how the lower-seeded teams match up.
However, he added he knows the postseason is different than the regular season because of the level of competition required. “It’s been rare to see those top seeds be the Final Four teams,” he said. “It goes to show that these may be the best teams, but it doesn’t mean they will be there at the end.”
Zacher said because there are teams like Duke, which are traditionally in the tournament but are not in the 2021 March Madness tournament, it makes picking teams that much more difficult. “There are hungrier teams this year,” he said, but the teams that didn’t make the cut in 2021 will be craving to get selected and win in 2022.