March Madness Breakdown

by John Covington Lamm

March Madness, the time of year when it’s socially acceptable to call in sick two days in a row to watch 19-year olds put a ball through a hoop mid afternoon on a weekday.  March is a time to watch your alma mater, other teams you love, and teams you hate play for a National Championship over the course of three weeks. The month of March is also a time for everyone to fill out their tournament brackets to predict what will happen in this crazy tournament.  

No matter how much basketball you watch, or how much time and data you put into your brackets, it is almost certain you will get busted.

Crazy things can happen. 11 seeds make the Final Four. UMBC, a 16 seed, beat Virginia last year. And maybe the most shocking thing of all in recent history, South Carolina upset Duke.  

Really the only two things certain are Georgetown getting the brakes beat off them by some no-name team, and Kansas not living up to their potential. Unfortunately Georgetown will not be a part of the tournament this year, but we can hold out hope that Kansas doesn’t let us down.

No matter who wins the tournament or what your brackets look like, there are several things to look out for when watching this year.

The Favorites

The top 5 favorites to win this tournament are Duke, Gonzaga, Virginia, UNC, and Kentucky.  This should come as no surprise, as these are the 1 seeds plus Kentucky – a 2 seed. The biggest favorite for the tournament is Duke at 11/5 odds.  Duke is easily the most talented team in the country, with the best player in the country, Zion Williamson, who is one of the freakiest athletes we have ever seen play college sports.

Players to Watch

Zion Williamson – Duke

Zion Williamson is the most talked about and most talented college basketball in a long time.  He only missed five full games when he injured his knee after breaking his shoe against UNC. But those five games seemed as if he missed an eternity with the amount of coverage ESPN gave him. Everyone was talking about whether he should come back and play or not. His return against Syracuse in the ACC tournament was as good as you can be with a statline of 29 points (13-13 from the field) and 14 rebounds.

When Williamson plays, Duke appears to be the best team by far in the tournament; when he doesn’t play, they can barely beat Wake Forest.  

He makes a huge impact for his team. Williamson has the chance to become one of the greatest basketball players of all time and may become the face of the NBA one day soon. If he’s able to lead Duke to a National Championship, he will put a big first mark on a potentially historic basketball career.

Ja Morant – Murray State

Ja Morant does not get the coverage that most college basketball stars get. But don’t let that fool you. He is arguably the second best NBA prospect after Williamson.  Morant is an extremely athletic point guard and is a human highlight reel with his ability to dunk the ball. He’s averaging 24.6 points per game and 10.0 assists per game.

Morant leads a 27-4 Murray State team into the tournament and hopes to make a splash similar to Stephen Curry when he led Cinderella Davidson College to the Elite 8 in 2008.  Morant will look to prove why he is a potential top five NBA draft pick when he takes on 5th seed Marquette on Thursday.

Grant Williams – Tennessee

Grant Williams, a Charlotte, NC native, enters the tournament as an experienced Junior.  From 4-star recruit to two-time SEC player of the year, Williams is the leader of the 2 seed Tennessee Vols as they look to improve on their 2nd round exit from the tournament a year ago.  Williams has the ability to score both inside and outside the paint, a fantastic rebounder, and is one of the best free throw shooters in college basketball at 82.6%.

Fletcher Magee – Wofford

Fletcher Magee, from Wofford College (T-Pups by 90), is only 3 three-pointers away from the all-time NCAA Division 1 record, which I expect (and hope with great anxiety for) him to get against 10 seed Seton Hall in the first round.  Magee is one of the purest three-point shooters college basketball has ever seen, and when he gets hot, he can easily make 7-8 three pointers in a game. If Wofford is able to make a deep run in this tournament, expect Magee’s three-point shooting to be a major factor.

Cinderellas

Murray State

NBA Coach Doc Rivers once said, “when you are in a win or go-home game and the best player is on the other team, you should be nervous because he has the chance of doing something great that night.”  Every team that plays Murray State in their region should consider this because Ja Morant will be the single best player in the West region.

Murray State will be taking on Marquette in the first round, a team that has spiraled out of control finishing the season by going 1-5 in their last 6 games.  I fully expect Murray State to win that game.

In the 2nd round, Murray State is set to most likely have to play Florida State. Although it pains me to say this, I trust Ja Morant’s talent more than I do a Leonard Hamilton coached team in a close game. Do not be surprised if Murray State makes a run to the second weekend of the tournament.

Wofford College

This Wofford basketball team at 29-4 is ranked 19th in the country and is still underrated.  Wofford comes in as a 7 seed, which I thought was one or two seeds too low. They are also the hottest team in the country, coming in with a 20-game win streak.  

Wofford is led by seniors Fletcher Magee and Cam Jackson, go 10 players deep, and has in my opinion the best coach in college basketball, Mike Young (no bias of course).  

Wofford is given very little chance to beat Kentucky in the second round, but Kentucky had trouble early in the season against a UNCG team which Wofford beat three times this year.  Also, you might want to ask UNC and South Carolina, if Wofford is any good; they’ve learned the hard way.

Final Four

• East Region – Duke
• West Region – Michigan
• South Region – Virginia
• Midwest Region – North Carolina

Championship

North Carolina over Duke

This would be a national championship for the ages.  North Carolina and Duke are the sports’ biggest rivalry. Plus they have never met in the NCAA tournament.

There couldn’t be a better place than the national championship to be the first meeting. North Carolina beat Duke twice fairly easily when Williamson was injured. However, when Williamson returned Duke was able to win 74-73.  

This game could be a toss up, but I am going with North Carolina due to them being a more experienced team. I also expect them to shoot better than 4-27 from the three-point line, which was what they shot against Duke in their recent one-point loss.

 John Lamm is a recent graduate of Wofford College. He is an avid college football fan, and one of the only people that can stump Chris Paschal when it comes to pointless college football trivia. He also is one of the leading historians on the Winston Era of Florida State Football. Recent publications include, “I Guess We Strong Then” and “We Didn’t Come Here For A Reason,” which is a three part series that dives into the 2013 Florida State Seminoles. It’s over 3,000 pages long.