Madness in March Madness

Bracket Tournament Results


1st – Woody Nimointyn – 97 pts


2nd – Brooke Baxter -91 pts


3rd –Charlie Jordan -77 pts


Teacher winner- Mr. Novak-75 pts

Worst bracket- Maddie Donatucci-29 pts




The NCAA Basketball Tournament this year was wild, exciting, and full of upsets. As you may know, only two people picked the Final Four teams correctly on ESPN’s Bracket Challenge, which has millions of brackets submitted every year. This year, Mr. Gibbs’ Sports Journalism Class held its own Challenge. Before we get to those results, here is an overview of the tournament:
In the first round, seven lower seeds beat a higher seed. 11 seed Marquette beat 6 Xavier, 9 Illinois beat 8 UNLV, 12 Richmond beat 5 Vanderbilt, 13 Morehead St. beat 4 Louisville, 11 VCU beat 6 Georgetown, 10 Florida St. beat 7 Texas A&M, and 11 Gonzaga beat 6 St. John’s. All 1 and 2 seeds advanced, and three 11 seeds advanced as well.
The second round was full of drama as well. Marquette again advanced by beating Syracuse, a heavy favorite. Although they were the higher seed, Richmond beat Morehead St. to advance to the Sweet 16. In one of the most dramatic games of the year, Butler beat Pittsburgh on 2 last-second free throws by Matt Howard, Butler’s best player, after he was fouled by Denier Robinson. Florida St. pulled off another huge upset by beating Notre Dame, and VCU, a small school in Virginia from the CAA, beat Purdue. Other than Pitt and Notre Dame, the rest of the 1 and 2 seeds advanced.
In the Sweet 16, Arizona beat 1 seed and reigning champ Duke, while VCU and Butler won again. UConn beat San Diego St. The most notable game of the round was 4 Kentucky vs. 1 overall Ohio St., who was picked by many to win. Kentucky advanced in an epic game, pulling off yet another upset for the tournament.
The Final Four was set when 3 UConn beat 5 Arizona, 8 Butler beat 2 Florida, 11 VCU beat 1 Kansas, and 4 Kentucky beat 2 UNC. To advance to the National Championship, UConn beat Kentucky, 56-55, in an exciting game. The other game was a matchup of underdogs. Almost no one picked VCU to get there, but with excellent coaching and tremendous play from Joey Rodriguez, they made it. Butler made the National Championship against Duke the previous year, but lost by 2 points. Butler won the game, 70-62, to advance to a 2nd straight National Championship.
The National Championship game did not follow in the footsteps of the other games in the tournament. There weren’t many exciting threes, flashy dunks, and there certainly wasn’t a high score. Some called it the worst National Championship game they had ever seen. The score at the end of the 1st half was 22-19 with Butler on top. But Uconn roared back in the second, ultimately smashing Butler, 53-41, to take the title. Butler’s shooting percentage , 18.8, was the worst in a title game. They shot 1-25 in the paint with 2 points. The tournament MVP was Kemba Walker. In all, this year’s tournament was one of the most exciting in history.

Stats from our Bracket Challenge
Best Bracket Score-97 (Woody Nimointyn)

Worst-29 (Maddie Donatucci)

INTERVIEW WITH FACULTY WINNER: Mr. Novak-75 pts







Last, but certainly not least...well, I guess it is the least in terms of score. Here is an interview with 6th grader Maddie Donatucci, explaining the method behind her madness: