Another hectic college basketball season finished in the madness of March this year with perennial powerhouse Louisville trumping Michigan in the title game, 82-76.
The Louisville Cardinals won their school’s first title since 1986 under head coach Rick Pitino, who became the first coach in college basketball history to win a title game with two separate colleges. The Cardinals were led to the Final Four weekend by senior point guard Peyton Siva and junior Russ Smith, but it was two unlikely role players that made the move to push them over the top. On the court, it was Luke Hancock, who led the Cardinals in scoring in the title game despite playing off the bench, going five for five from three point range to narrow the gap and lead the comeback en route to earning the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player award.
Off the court, it was roleplayer Kevin Ware, whose injury in the Elite Eight game against Duke made several fans and players cry or cringe. However, even with his broken tibia jutting out of the back of his leg, Ware rallied his teammates telling them, “Just go win this game for me. Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. Just go win this game.” The strong phrase spurred the team to comeback and beat rival Duke and surge through Wichita State, and eventually the Michigan Wolverines, led by AP Player of the Year Trey Burke.
But the road to the championship game was quite possibly the more exciting and shocking part of March Madness. The most notable example of the March mayhem was the Western division. Top seed Gonzaga was upset in second round by Wichita State in a crazy Western division bracket which saw the losses of its first, third, fifth, fourth and sixth and seventh seeds all failing to get out of the tournament’s first weekend. The division was represented by ninth seed Wichita State in the Final Four, the first time in school history since 1965. Syracuse was the other school that rounded out the top four.
In the Midwest, Georgetown became the first school in history to lose five consecutive tournament games against double digit seeds, losing to Florida Gulf Coast this year. FGU ended up going further than any other fifteenth seed in the history of the tourney, going to the Sweet Sixteen. LaSalle University advanced all the way from the First Four to the sweet sixteen, showing that the play in games really do matter.
Several players picked up their game to boost their draft stock including Trey Burke, Gorgui Dieng, Michael Carter-Williams, Peyton Siva, and Sherwood Brown. Meanwhile, Marcus Smart, Ben McLemore, and Ryan Kelly all hurt their case to get drafted into the NBA next year.
Many lessons were learned in the hectic tournament as there always is. The top overall seed Louisville still won the competition despite all of the other upsets going on around them. A top defensive team once again won the tournament. The Pac-12 was once again seeded too low as Arizona and Oregon made deep cuts after underwhelming seedings. A sixteenth seed still has not beaten a number one seed, although Southern University and Western Kentucky stood toe to toe with Gonzaga and Kansas respectively. Rick Pitino became the first coach to win national titles for two different schools along with one from Kentucky, showing that there is room for firsts still. All of the action was fun and exciting in this year’s tourney, and nobody could have predicted it. The biggest question that remains for is, how will the excitement be greater next year?
