March Madness Preview

That’s enough about the favorites. Let’s get to what makes March Madness one of the greatest sporting events in the world: the upsets, the little guys, the Cinderella stories, the MADNESS!

Here are some teams to keep an eye on when filling out a bracket, starting with the Winthrop Eagles. 

The twelfth seeded Eagles will face off against the fifth seeded Villanova Wildcats in the south region. Villanova is entering the tourney having dropped three of their last four games, which doesn’t bode well for the Wildcats. On the flip side, Winthrop is entering the tourney with just one loss during the entire season, with a record of 23-1. Look out for Chandler Vaudrin, the six foot seven do it all point guard to have a big game. Don’t be surprised if the Big South Champions make some noise this March. 

Another team to key in on is the Ohio Bobcats, who will be facing the Virginia Cavaliers in the four v. thirteen matchup in the West region. 

Despite, technically, being the defending champions since they won it all back in 2019 and there was no tourney last year because of the pandemic, Virginia, over the past decade, has always struggled in the tournament. This may be because of Virginia’s style of play. 

Throughout his tenure as Virginia’s head coach, Tony Bennett has been committed to a slow paced style of basketball. The Cavaliers love to slow the game down and completely run through their sets. They’re never really looking to push the pace.  

This has proven to be very successful for Virginia in the regular season, but in a setting like the NCAA tournament, where it’s win or go home, this style can actually work to their opponents advantage. For instance, a team like Ohio doesn’t have the athletes and size that Virginia does, so Ohio will want to limit the amount of possessions Virginia gets. A slowed down game usually means a closer game because each team doesn’t get as many shots, and as a result, not as many points are scored. This gives the lesser team a better chance to stay in the game and may even steal the W. 

Now, despite all of that, Virginia may, very well, come out and dominate Ohio with their size, strength, and athleticism, but don’t count out the Mid-American Conference champs.