March is here and with that comes the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament known as March Madness, which begins this Thursday.
March Madness takes the top 64 teams in the US and pits them against each other for the chance to become the national champion.
A tradition among friends, family and coworkers is to fill out a bracket, put money down and whoever ends with the most correct bracket wins the pot.
I am going to offer my predictions for the final four.
The first team I believe to make it to the final four are the Purdue Boilermakers.
The Boilermakers are led by center Zach Edey, who averages 24.2 points and 11.7 rebounds per game, and guard Braden Smith, who averages 7.2 assists a game.
The second team I have going to the final four are the Iowa State Cyclones.
The Cyclones’ top players are guard Keshon Gilbert with 13.8 points per game and forward Tre King who has 5.2 rebounds per game.
The third team I have going to the final four are the Marquette Golden Eagles.
The Golden Eagles are piloted by guard Tyler Kolek, who averages 15 points and 7.6 assists, and forward Oso Ighadaro, who averages 6.9 rebounds per game.
The final team I have going to the final four are the Baylor Bears.
The Bears are headed by guard Ja’Kobe Walter, who has 14.2 points per game, and center Yves Missi, who has 5.8 rebounds per game.
In the left half of the bracket we will see a rematch of the big 12 semi-final match between Baylor and Iowa State in the final four. In the right half of the bracket we will see an epic battle between two titans with Purdue vs. Marquette.
For the first match-up in the final four, I believe Iowa State will take the win and I believe it will be by at least double digits.
The other match-up isn’t as easy to predict. I feel it will be an incredibly close game that Purdue will barely take the win—maybe even in overtime.
In the final match between Purdue and Iowa State, I believe that Purdue will take the entire tournament with a final score of 81-75.
Falcon News encourages staff and students to submit their brackets to be shared after the tournament ends and compare their success along the way.
You can send your brackets to ss17504@student.oregonk-12.com.
