Last March Madness, I achieved international fame (not really) for unequivocally predicting that 14-seeded Georgia State would upset mighty 3-seed Baylor in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The greatest three-week stretch in all of sports is here, and The Daily Cardinal has you covered for all your March Madness needs. We have a bracket, an NCAA Tournament calculator to help fill out said bracket, a roundtable discussion of Wisconsin tournament odds, a Pittsburgh preview, an overview of each region, a preview for every No. 1 seed and much, much more.
The Daily Cardinal sports staff takes a look at five pressing questions leading into Wisconsin’s first-round matchup with Pittsburgh in the NCAA Tournament.
The NCAA Tournament can get pretty wacky, pretty quickly. Here's a quick overview of some of the oddities surrounding this year's edition of March Madness. The University of North Carolina system has three different schools in the tournament—No. 1 North Carolina, No. 15 UNC-Asheville and No. 13 UNC-Wilmington.
In looking for big underdogs last season, I looked at the statistics of underdog teams that win in the first round and how they differ from those that lose.
The dust has settled and the bracket is out (officially this time, none of that leaked nonsense), and the Big Ten has seven teams in the tourney spanning three of the four brackets. The Big Ten Tournament champion Michigan State Spartans were the Big Ten’s highest seed, but were robbed of a No. 1 seed and will settle for the Midwest Region’s No. 2 seed.
Player to Watch: Kris Dunn, Providence Senior guard Kris Dunn and his nine-seeded Providence Friars began the season with high expectations.
Player to watch: Buddy Hield, Oklahoma It’s not exactly a reach, but the fact of the matter is that there are few, if any, players in college basketball as good as Buddy Hield.
Player to watch: Melo Trimble, Maryland The Terrapin point guard’s sophomore slump has been inexplicable and extremely frustrating for Maryland fans, but Trimble is still the kind of player who can catch fire and lead his team on a deep tournament run.
Player to Watch: Denzel Valentine, Michigan State Without a doubt, the top player in this region would have to be Michigan State’s Denzel Valentine.
Coming into the 2015-’16 season, North Carolina had clear championship goals. The Tar Heels’ returned four of their five starters, making them one of the most experienced teams in the country.
One of the more surprising selections made this Sunday came with the announcement that the Oregon Ducks would enter the tournament as the highest seed in the West Region of the 2016 bracket.
Falling to Michigan State in the round of 32 a year ago, the University of Virginia Cavaliers (13-5 ACC, 26-7 overall) enter the 2016 NCAA Tournament with a sour taste in their mouths, looking to avenge their early exit in 2015 with a deep postseason run this time around. The key to Virginia's tournament success rests on the shoulders of first-team All-American Malcolm Brogdon.
After capturing their 12th consecutive conference championship with a victory over West Virginia in the Big 12 title game, the top-ranked Kansas Jayhawks (15-3 Big 12, 30-4 overall) enter the NCAA tournament as the No. 1 overall seed.
Six-seeded Wisconsin and 10-seeded Pittsburgh will meet for the 18th time Friday in St. Louis, Mo., in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The season continues on for the No. 2 Wisconsin Badgers (35-3-1) as they punched their ticket to a third consecutive Frozen Four appearance, defeating Mercyhurst (19-11-5) in the NCAA quarterfinals 6-0. The victory came in front of a sold-out and boisterous crowd at LaBahn Arena, an atmosphere that has become a staple at home this season.
Wisconsin (11-10) split its games in day two of the Rebel Classic, defeating Valparaiso 7-5 and falling to UNLV 3-0 Saturday night in Las Vegas, Nevada. Wisconsin jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in game one after a two-run home run by junior first baseman Sara Novak in the first inning. Valparaiso (2-14 overall) answered in the top of the third after a solo home run by Kaitlyn Ranieri.
On the first day of spring practice Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium, the large jumbotron standing guard over the student section beyond the north end zone displayed the word “beat” on the visiting team’s nameplate and “USC” in the home team’s spot. Whether the scoreboard hasn’t been reprogrammed since before Wisconsin took on the Trojans in the Holiday Bowl, or some other mysterious reason accounts for this display, it served as a reminder that just four months ago, UW was preparing to take on a defense Justin Wilcox had presided over in 2015.
Led by the top of the batting order and strong pitching from senior Taylor-Paige Stewart, Wisconsin (10-9) shut out Santa Clara University 8-0 Friday in its first game in the Rebel Classic in Las Vegas, Nev.
Having captured the WCHA regular-season and tournament titles, Wisconsin now has its eyes on a much bigger prize: a national championship. The Badgers (24-3-1 WCHA, 34-3-1 overall) wrapped up the WCHA playoffs, as well as the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, last weekend in Minneapolis.
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