This past weekend was the first and second rounds of the 2021 March Madness Men’s Tournament.  It was a great weekend with plenty of upsets and great games.  Unfortunately, our own Hartford Hawks couldn’t pull off the upset against one of the best teams in the country, Baylor, but they put up a great effort and led for a considerable amount of time at the beginning of the game.  Out of the 68 teams now only 16 remain with a few unexpected appearances in the Sweet Sixteen.

The first day of the round of 64 was full of upsets with 6 total upsets out of 16 games.  The biggest upset on Friday was 15 seed Oral Roberts beating 2 seed Ohio State.  This was a big bracket buster with many people having the Buckeyes in their Final Four.  What lost the Buckeyes the game was their turnovers and missed free throws.  They had 16 total turnovers and were only 9/18 on free throws.  Oral Roberts played great defense with 10 total steals compared to Ohio State’s 1.

Two days later, Oral Roberts pulled off another upset against 7 seed Florida where they played great defense again with 12 steals.  Oral Roberts is now only the second 15 seed ever to make it to the Sweet Sixteen where they’re set to play against 3 seed Arkansas on Saturday.

There are quite a few other surprises in the Sweet Sixteen with 12 seed Oregon State, 11 seeds UCLA and Syracuse, 8 seed Loyola Chicago, and 7 seed Oregon all making it to the final 16 teams.  Oregon State beat both 5 seed Tennessee and 4 seed Oklahoma State on their way to the Sweet 16, dominating the paint with impressive rebound and block numbers.  UCLA first beat Michigan State in the first four games then beat 6 seed BYU, then 14 seed Abilene Christian who pulled off a great upset against 3 seed Texas.

Syracuse beat 6 seed San Diego State then 3 seed West Virginia.  Loyola Chicago beat 9 seed Georgia Tech then 1 seed Illinois.  And finally, Oregon beat 10 seed VCU by default as VCU was eliminated due to Covid-19 protocols.  They then beat 2 seed Iowa in the second round.

It has been a wild March Madness and the tournament is really living up to its name.  We already have one 1 seed out, two 2 seeds out, and three 3 seeds out.  With all these crazy upsets, we have yet to see a buzzer-beater in the tournament, something that usually happens at least once in the first couple of rounds.  And although many strong teams have fallen, the favorites Gonzaga are still going strong and look to complete their undefeated season with a championship.  The madness continues this Saturday with the remaining teams competing to go to the Elite Eight!