The Madness in March

The Madness in March Remy N.

What is March Madness?

March Madness is a single-elimination basketball tournament played each spring in the United States that features 68 college basketball teams.

March madness decides the national champion of Division 1 basketball. The tournament is organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and is held every March hence its name. The tournament was created during 1939 and was the idea of Ohio State coach Harold Olsen. The number of teams along with the format of the tournament has changed since its creation in 1939. There have been many undefeated teams heading into the tournament and coaches who have won multiple tournaments. The tournament is a very popular event to bet on in the United States and is a very fun sporting event to watch.

What is the format of March Madness?

A total of 68 teams qualify for the annual tournament held in March. Thirty two teams earn automatic bids as conference champions. Thirty one conferences decide their champions by a conference tournament, but the regular season champion of the Ivy league receives an automatic bid to the tournament. If two Ivy league teams share a regular season championship then a one game playoff determines the automatic berth. The other thirty six spots are given to at-large bids which are determined by the selection committee, which is nationally televised on the Sunday before the first-four play in tournament. In the selection show they seed the teams and place them in four regions. This has come to be known as “Selection Sunday”. The field is separated into four regions with each region having at least sixteen teams. The names of the regions are South, East, Midwest, and West and correspond to the location of the Regional Finals. In 2015 the cities that hosted the regional finals were South (Houston, Texas), East (Syracuse, New York), Midwest (Cleveland, Ohio), and West (Los Angeles, California). The selection committee is charged with making each region as close as possible in the overall quality of the teams.

The selection committee seeds the team with the top four teams distributed among the four regions with each one receiving a number one seed. Then the next four teams are distributed among the four regions with each receiving a number two seed and the process continues like this. Carried to its logical conclusion, this would give each region teams 1-17, but this is not what happens. The selection committee has to select teams to play in the first four, which refers to the first four games not the first four teams. The winner of each of these games earns a berth in the first round of the tournament, making each region have sixteen teams. In the first round the #1 ranked team in each region plays the #16 ranked team and the #2 ranked team plays the #15 ranked team, and so on. This makes it easier for the higher ranked teams because they did better in the regular season. The first round in the tournament contains 64 teams, the second round contains 32 teams, then it’s the sweet sixteen, the elite eight, the final four, and finally the national championship.

How has the tournament changed since it was created in 1939?

Prior to 1975 only one team per conference was allowed into the tournament. However, when several highly ranked teams were left out the NCAA began to place at-large teams into the tournament instead of just conference champions. Beginning in 2011, the tournament expanded to 68 teams. This also added the four play-in games known as the “first four”. The teams playing in the first four games are ranked on selection sunday, so they are not all ranked sixteen.

From 1985 to 2010, the round consisting of 64 teams and 32 games was called the “first round” while the round consisting of 16 games and 32 teams was called the "second round". This changed in 2011 when the “first four” became known as the “first round, the round consisting of 64 teams and 32 games was called the “second round” and the round consisting of 32 teams and 16 games was known as the “third round”. This format will be changed once again in 2016. In 2016, the format will return to where the round after the “first four”, that contains 64 teams and 32 games will be known as the “first round”, the next round will be known as the “second round”, then the sweet sixteen, the elite eight, the final four, and finally the national championship.

What have been the results of undefeated teams in the tournament?

There have been 19 teams that were undefeated heading into the NCAA tournament.

In 1951, Columbia became the first undefeated team heading into the March tournament. Their record was 21-0 before the tournament. Their tournament came to an end in the sweet sixteen when they lost to Illinois. In 1956, San Francisco had a 24-0 record going into the tournament.

They were the first undefeated team to win the tournament when they beat Iowa in the National Championship. North Carolina had a 27-0 record before the 1957 tournament. They also won the tournament by beating Kansas in the finals. In 1961, Ohio State was undefeated with a record of 24-0 heading into March. They became the first undefeated team to lose in the National Championship game when they lost to Cincinnati in the 1961 National Championship. UCLA won the 1964 and 1967 tournament undefeated.

Houston was undefeated going into the 1968 tournament, but lost in the final four to UCLA. St Bonaventure was undefeated in the regular season in 1968, but lost in the sweet sixteen to North Carolina.

The 1968 tournament was the first to have two undefeated teams. In 1971, Pennsylvania and Marquette were undefeated in the regular season, but both lost before the final four. In 1972, UCLA was undefeated and won the tournament again by beating Florida State.

They also went undefeated to win the tournament in 1973 by defeating Memphis State in the national championship. Indiana was undefeated going into the March tournament in both 1975 and 1976. In 1975, they came up short when they lost in the elite eight to Kentucky. In 1976, they went all the way to the national championship game and beat Michigan to hold up the trophy.

Rutgers was also undefeated in 1976, but they came up short when they lost in the Final Four to Michigan. In 1979, Indiana State was undefeated going into the tournament where they lost in the National Championship to Michigan State. UNLV was 30-0 in the regular

season in 1991, but lost in the Final Four to Duke. In 2014, Wichita State was 34-0 going into the tournament where they lost to Kentucky in the round of 32. Wichita State’s tournament in 2014 was the worst ever for an undefeated team in March Madness. In 2015, Kentucky was also 34-0 going into the tournament, but came up a little short when they lost to Wisconsin in the final four.

What coaches have been the most successful in the NCAA tournament?

Fourteen coaches have won the NCAA tournament more than once. Nine coaches have won the tournament two times, two coaches have won the tournament three times, one coach has won four national championships, one coach has won five national championships, and the most successful coach in the NCAA tournament has won ten national championships.

The most successful coach in the tournament has been John Wooden who has won ten National titles. Mike Krzyzewski is the second most successful coach by winning five title games. His most recent national title was last year in 2015. Adolph Rupp has won four national titles, making him the third most successful coach in March. Jim Calhoun and Bob Knight have both won three national championship games. Dean Smith, Roy Williams, Denny Crum, Billy Donovan, Henry Iba, Ed Jucker, Branch McCracken, Rick Pitino, and Phil Woolpert have all won two national titles. Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, and Rick Pitino are the only active coaches to have won more than one national championship.

Works Cited "DI Men's College Basketball - Home | NCAA.com." NCAA.com.

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Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2016.

ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures, n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2016.