WITH “March Madness” comes the U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I men’s basketball tournament with a single-loss knockout format.
The race for the national crown among the top 68 schools in America got underway last March 19 (Manila time) with the First Four play-in games among the eight lower-rated schools that were looking to secure the last four tickets to the Last Dance.
North Carolina State whipped Xavier, Albany downed Mount St. Mary’s, Tennessee crushed Iowa, and Cal Poly (14-19) whipped Texas Southern to become the first team in 59 years with 19 losses to win an NCAA tournament contest as the four winners reached the tournament proper.
Over the weekend, the 68-team cast was quickly narrowed down to the Sweet 16 with teams that won twice advancing to the semifinals of their respective regionals (South, East, West and Midwest).
The No. 1 seeds in the four regionals are top-ranked Florida (South), second-rated Arizona (West), third-ranked Wichita State (Midwest), and fourth-rated Virginia (East). Wichita State, though, failed to survive the Round of 32.
The much-chronicled tournament will culminate with the staging of the Final Four (national semifinals) on April 5 (Apr. 6 Manila time) at the AT & T Stadium in Arlington, Texas and the championship game two days later also at the same venue.
The Final Four pairings are South champion vs. East champion and West champion vs. Midwest champion.The top-caliber players that are seeing action in the tournament include Canadian hotshot Andrew Wiggins of the University of Kansas (the second-seeded Jayhawks were ousted by 10th seed Stanford, 60-57, in the Round of 32 while missing the services of back-troubled Cameroonian Joel Embiid in their two tournament assignments), Jabari Parker of Duke University, and Julius Randle of the University of Kentucky.
Wiggins, Embiid, Parker and Randle are highly-publicized freshmen who together with Creighton University senior Doug McDermott, the leading scorer in the NCAA Division I this season, and Australian star guard Dante Exum are expected to go early in the professional National Basketball Association (NBA) draft in June.
Then again, this piece is more about the funniest and most colorful names in NCAA basketball this season. And oh-so plenty they are. Hereunder are Hoopster’s picks for the All-America Names Team.
Jordair Jett, Saint Louis – Senior shooting guard is Atlantic-10 Conference’s Player of the Year but at 6-foot-1, the Billiken star will never fly like Mike. This is one of the most colorful names in NCAA history.
Shabazz Napier, Connecticut – The buzz is he wants the rock at crunchtime. Caris LeVert, Michigan – Twin-digit scoring guard cares a lot for the Wolverines.
Fred Van Vleet, Wichita State – 5-foot-11 playmaker is the engine of the Shockers, who entered the NCAA tournament as the lone unbeaten entry at 34-0 before dropping their second-round game against No. 8 seed Kentucky, 78-76, and exiting the Last Dance early with their first defeat in 36 games this season.
Cameron Bairstow, New Mexico – Aussie beast is said to be the best post-scorer in Division I. Scottie Wilbekin, Florida – Reigning Southeastern Conference Player of the Year is the starting point guard for the top-ranked Gators.
Naadir Tharpe, Kansas – Junior playmaker is chiefly responsible for making Andrew Wiggins a happy camper. Semaj Christon, Xavier – 6-foot-3 sophomore from Cincinnati hopes to make it big in the tournament to improve his draft stock.
Roy Devyn Marble, Iowa – Hawkeyes captain paces the team in point production.Montrezl Harrell, Louisville – Soph power forward from North Carolina averages 14 points and eight boards for the defending NCAA titlist Cardinals and is a potential NBA first-round draft pick this year.
Other out-of-this-world names: LaQuinton Ross (Ohio Sate), Bronson Koening (Wisconsin), JayVaughn Pinkston (Villanova), Rayvonte Rice (Illinois), Cleanthony Early (Wichita State) and Rasheed Sulaimon (Duke).
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