Buzzer-beater upsets dominate March Madness

By Ryan, April 11, 2016

By Deirdre Logan // Sports Editor

Every year, millions of Americans enter March Madness brackets with high hopes that their top picks will reign supreme in their Tournament Challenge group. Accurately picking all the right teams makes winning the lottery look likely. The odds that someone has the perfect bracket are one in over nine quintillion. It does not help when there are so many upsets, as was demonstrated by this year’s tournament.
March 18 will go down in history as one of the most intense first-round NCAA Tournament basketball games ever. It was the first time in NCAA Tournament history that a No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 seed have lost first-round games on the same day. It was the first time that 10 double-digit seeds won a first-round game. March 18 was also the day that had one buzzer-beater around the rim, one buzzer-beater from halfcourt and one near buzzer-beater that was waved off by mere milliseconds.
Despite the first-round intensity, most people can agree that the most surprising upset was when Michigan State lost to Syracuse. High Point University freshman Nick Allen talked about the effect this game had on his bracket.
“Every year I enter into a group with my friends from home and do fairly well,” Allen said. “This is definitely my worst year because of all the upsets. I made multiple brackets this year and all of them are terrible and messed up. Nobody could have predicted this.”
The No. 10 seed, Syracuse, may have been the most shocking team of the tournament, riding a destroyed bracket to become the first such seed to advance to the Final Four against No.1 seed UNC Chapel Hill. On the other side of the Final Four were two teams that may have been a bit easier to predict, both No. 2 seeds Oklahoma and Villanova. HPU freshman Drew Ingle talked about his bracket this year.
“Even though the upsets have taken everyone by surprise, I somehow managed to have chosen the right teams for the Final Four,” Ingle said. “ I had everyone except Syracuse so I managed to stack up well in my group.”
Ingle said one of his strategies was looking at some of the key players in the tournament this year such as Thomas Walkup, Malachi Richardson and Buddy Hield. Richardson led the team in scoring and he is only a freshman at Syracuse. He helped lead the 16 point comeback against Virginia to win the Final Four spot. HPU freshman Sean Brunson shared his thoughts on Thomas Walkup.
“Thomas Walkup, a senior out of SF Austin, is an all around great player who helped lead the upset over No. 3 Virginia,” Brunson said. “He also has a great orange beard.”
This year was loaded with upsets that caused the downfall of a lot of brackets. It will be interesting to see what happens in the bracket next year.