{"id":9734,"date":"2019-03-22T18:30:43","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T18:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/?p=9734"},"modified":"2019-03-22T18:30:43","modified_gmt":"2019-03-22T18:30:43","slug":"march-madness-tournament-mayhem-is-underway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/2019\/03\/22\/march-madness-tournament-mayhem-is-underway\/","title":{"rendered":"March Madness tournament mayhem is underway"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kambui Bomani<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sports Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Google image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

March Madness has become every non-sport fanatic\u2019s biggest spectacle in the latter weeks of March and early April since the annual bracket challenge became a nationwide spectacle during the 21st<\/sup>century.<\/p>\n

Considering the 2018-2019 season has been one of the more entertaining collegiate basketball seasons for the NCAA in over a decade, it\u2019s safe to say March Madness 2019 will not disappoint avid and casual fans during the early days of spring.<\/p>\n

Every year the tournament has its enlisted contending basketball programs destined to make a national championship run.<\/p>\n

There are the poignant mid-major schools destined to upend the applecart and stake their claim as teams to be reckoned with throughout the tourney\u2019s occurrence.<\/p>\n

Then, there is the unlikely, but inevitable team from nowhere\u2014 whether it be a big program or small university that destroys every fan\u2019s bracket the first weekend and overstays their welcome on college basketball\u2019s biggest stage.<\/p>\n

The Duke Blue Devils, winners of the Atlantic coast conference tournament, are the number one overall seed in the tournament.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re destined to make a final four run in Minneapolis, Minn., and are being led by national player of the year candidate, Zion Williamson.<\/p>\n

Williamson, a freshman from Spartanburg, S.C., was given massive fanfare leading up to his college career because of his off-the-charts athleticism as a local high school prep star.<\/p>\n

He translated the hype about his athleticism into tangible evidence on the court as a skillful basketball player prone to take over the game with tough interior scoring offensively and keen anticipation on the defensive end.<\/p>\n

Backed by the play of fellow potential All-American R.J. Barrett, and freshmen phenomes Tre Jones and Cam Reddish, it\u2019s fair to say a national title would be the destined final rite of passage for the Blue Devil team.<\/p>\n

The likes of the Tennessee Volunteers, Gonzaga Bulldogs, Virginia Cavaliers and the North Carolina Tar Heels complete the following predicted championship contenders favored to be in the hunt for the National Championship during this tournament.<\/p>\n

All of these teams hope to better their prior NCAA Tournament finishes from a year ago. The Volunteers are a year removed from succumbing to 2018 Cinderella darling Loyola-Chicago in the final seconds during the round of 32 as a three seed.<\/p>\n

North Carolina was the reigning national champs in 2018 and a number two seed in their respective bracket region only to get throttled by the Texas A&M Aggies by a double-digit margin in the round of 32.<\/p>\n

Gonzaga finished better than the prior two universities, but lost to a high-flying Florida State Team in the round of 16 by double-digits as a four seed in their bracket.<\/p>\n

Virginia has the most to amend from last season\u2019s tournament blunder as they return in 2019 as a number one seed in their respective bracket.<\/p>\n

Just last tourney, they became the first number one seed ever to lose to a 16 seed in the division one men\u2019s national basketball tournament falling to UMBC by 22 points.<\/p>\n

The feeling from basketball insiders and the common college basketball fan is that history won\u2019t repeat itself, because Virginia is a better team than the one a year ago.<\/p>\n

Various mid-major schools are penned in by analyst and insiders as potential bracket busters once tournament weekend begins.<\/p>\n

Murray State draws an intriguing matchup between Marquette University and features a battle of some of the best guards in the country in Marquette\u2019s Markus Howard and Ja Morant from Murray State.<\/p>\n

Morant, like Zion Williamson, is a finalist for the National Player of the year and has his sights on making the Racers\u2019 stay in the postseason a very long one.<\/p>\n

The predictions and analysis of the brackets are what make March Madness probably the most watched spectacle in American college sports, and considering this tourney has the potential to be full of surprises, it is anyone\u2019s guess how this year\u2019s tournament outcome will define itself as the curtain closes on Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kambui Bomani Sports Writer March Madness has become every non-sport fanatic\u2019s biggest spectacle in the latter weeks of March and early April since the annual bracket challenge became a nationwide spectacle during the 21stcentury. Considering the 2018-2019 season has been one of the more entertaining collegiate basketball seasons for the NCAA in over a decade, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9734\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}