March Madness is one of the most important things in many sports watchers’ lives. Trying to get a perfect bracket (I got 99.7%), watching low seeds topple high seeds, heated rivalries, and intense matchups is often what drives avid sports fans to this event, and even your everyday person, too. The National Championship was a fantastic outing this year with the Michigan Wolverines toppling the UConn Huskies 69-63. Many students had a lot of insight to share about this year’s championship. These basketball fans are constantly on the edge of their seat, and the Championship didn’t disappoint the several Mendham students who gave their insight on the game.
Michigan fan and senior at Mendham, Dontrell Woody, thinks that “winning the finals was cool, and [he] thoroughly enjoyed the show that was put on.” Michigan fans alike can most likely agree with these powerful words. Donnie said, “Everyone played their part, not gonna lie, there were double digits across the board,” especially with “Elliot Cadeau set[ting] the pace [as he] was hitting important shots.” Donnie believes that their off-the-court bonding was evident in why their gameplay was so dominant, and he was adamant about it being shown clearly when “they go on TikTok lives with fans and talk about [things] which brings the team together.”
Witt Hutchinson, another Mendham senior, but a UConn fan, gave his insight on the other side of the court. Witt said he “love[s] the chaos and its unpredictable nature. Anything can happen in March.” When asked about who he thought brought the greatest impact to the game, Witt replied, “Silas Demary Jr, he is UConn’s best player.” When asked about who did the worst on his team, he remarked, “Braylon Mullins… went 4-17. I could do better…”, which can be an agreeable statement amongst UConn fans, as many players underperformed; he stuck out like a sore thumb.
Mendham Senior Cj Guarente shared what made the Championship special to him as an Arizona fan. He likes March Madness because “it brings together basketball fans and it’s very competitive.” Even though he believes Arizona should’ve been in the final two, he still had a fun time watching the game. This goes to show that you don’t have to support either of the teams that made it all the way to still find joy in watching the finale of March Madness.
In my opinion, I thought that the final was a good back-and-forth game for the most part. It wasn’t exactly up to the level I was hoping for it to be at, and I would’ve rather have seen a different team in the final two other than UConn. As a St. John’s fan, I would have liked to see them in the finals, but realistically, my highest expectation was making it to the final 4 or 8. Overall, I’m excited to see which of these college players get drafted and how the teams will come back better next year.
