By Chris Park, El Diamante High School, Grade 12
April 4, 2011
It’s the time of the year when college hoops sweeps the nation with the biggest upsets and excitement. The NCAA College Basketball Association kicked off its famous NCAA Tournament the dawn of March, to crown the best Division 1 College Basketball Team in the nation. Teams all over the U.S desperately fought to earn their invitation to the most prestigious tournament in NCAA basketball. When the time came, big time teams including, Duke, Arizona State, Butler, Ohio State, Kansas, Kansas State, etc. all stepped up; for some teams, it was a miracle to get invited. However, this tournament rules a one-loss elimination for everyone regardless of team calibers. So the question lingering around is: who will bring home the NCAA College Basketball Championship this year?
The “buzz” about who will win it all circulates the nation, even involving the United States President, Barack Obama. For the last two years, Obama’s selections were correct. In 2009, he chose North Carolina as the champion and in 2010, he correctly selected the Kansas Jayhawks. Without any doubt, both teams made it all the way to the championship and won it. This year, Obama selected his Final Four to be composed of, Ohio State, Duke, Pittsburgh and the returning Jayhawks. He pictures his vision of the championship to be the defending Jayhawks and the Buckeyes of Ohio State. Unfortunately, even Obama’s picks were not enough for the underdogs this year. All the number one teams from each region fell short in the race to the famous Final Four.
This years March Madness consisted of unbelievable talent coming from unexpected teams. As a result, the University of Connecticut, Butler, Kentucky and Virginia Commonwealth University stood standing into the Final Four.
Cal State Northridge freshman, Gagan Singh, expressed his feelings for the championship game, “UCONN and Butler. Butler is playing an inexperienced team.” Though Butler has been to the finals the previous year and has some experience, Singh still chose the underdog team to win it all, “Connecticut, because they’re playing the best right now, and they got Kemba Walker.”
From the East to the West, teams from every corner of the nation stepped up to bring home an NCAA D1 championship. However, this year’s underdog team truly stepped up and has the nation guessing who will win it all. Will it be the unknown VCU Rams, the experienced Butler Bulldogs, the UCONN huskies or the Kentucky Wildcats?
