As high school winter sports and men’s basketball come to a conclusion, college sports fans eagerly awaited the arrival of March Madness. What is March Madness you say?

March Madness is an NCAA, National Collegiate Athletic Association, basketball tournament that consists of 68 teams from colleges around the nation. These teams are divided into 4 separate brackets in which they have “elimination” rounds. As usual, each of these teams are ranked based off their victories. As a result, it is easier for the tournaments to move at a rapid pace, since lower ranked teams are paired up with the higher ranked ones.

UCLA leads all teams/colleges, with a record 11 championship titles. In order to become victorious, teams have to pass a certain amount of rounds: The First Four, The Second Round (“the Round of 64”) , The Third Round (“the Round of 32″), The Regional Semi-finals (” the Sweet Sixteen”), The Regional Finals (“the Elite Eight”), The National Semi-finals (“the Final Four”), and finally, The National Championship.

In the Round of 64, Kentucky, Cincinnati, West Virginia, Maryland, Butler, Notre Dame, Wichita St., and Kansas all were victorious and excelled into the next round. In the Third Round, which was held from March 21-22, the prevailing teams were Kentucky, West Virginia, Notre Dame, and Wichita St. In the Sweet Sixteen, all top teams in the NCAA regions (Midwest, West, East, South) competed against each other. The victorious were Kentucky and Notre Dame (Midwest), Wisconsin and Arizona (West), Louisville and Michigan St. (East), and Duke and Gonzaga (South). Currently, Kentucky and Wisconsin will be playing against each other on April 4th in the Final Four round. In addition, Michigan State will play Duke on April 4th as well.

Paige Weingarten(9)  was “sad that [her] favorite team, UCI, had lost in the first few rounds of the competition. But [she] is hopeful that they will come back around for the next championship game!” In addition, Melissa Angcaco (12) was “ecstatic that Notre Dame, the school [she] will be attending in the fall, had made a great run this year; however, [she] still hopes they will win the championship sooner or later”!

The anticipated Championship Game will be held on April 6th, but the location depends on who will win the next few games! We wish the NCAA players the best of luck in their athletic careers!