The Lance

The first few rounds the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament really have lived up to it’s nickname of “March Madness.” The nickname was given from the large amount of major upsets which occur year in and year out in this tournament.

Two of this year’s largest upsets were in the 15-2 matchups. In the West Bracket, the second seeded Missouri Tigers were shocked by the 15-seeded Norfolk State Spartans. Many experts considered the Tigers a Championship contender and were not surprised to be sent home in the first round. In the South bracket the 2-seeded Duke Blue Devils were knocked off by the 15-seeded Mountain Hawks of Lehigh. “We saw on the selection show we had Duke and we thought we could match up very well against them,” said Lehigh forward John Adams. “We all believed it and we showed it on the floor. Everybody bought into that idea that we could beat them. The rest is history.”ESPN.com

Our home team, the UNLV Rebels, hoped that this would be the year that they could make a run deep into the tournament. This dream came to an end in the first round despite a furious comeback in the second half against Colorado. “We certainly got off to a rough start. I did think they played with a greater sense of urgency than we did,” UNLV head coach Dave Rice said. “I’m extremely disappointed for our team, but incredibly proud of the comeback.”LVRJ.com
In  the Elite Eight there were two number one seeds who would see their season come to a close as the North Carolina Tarheels were beaten by the Kansas Jayhawks, 80-67 and the Syracuse Orange were defeated by the Ohio State Buckeyes, 77-70. The other two teams that will be joining Kansas and Ohio State in New Orleans are the Louisville Cardinals and the Kentucky Wildcats. All of the Final Four action begins tomorrow with the first national semifinal matchup between Louisville and Kentucky starting at 6:09 EST. That game is followed by the second national semifinal at approximately 8:49 EST between Syracuse and Kansas. The winners of these two games will meet each other for the National Championship on Monday. All of these games will be nationally broadcasted on CBS and played at the Mercedes Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.