It’s the time of the year again when the nation’s top basketball schools vie to become the best in the land. The road to the NCAA Championships starts March 17 at Selection Sunday.

The last four seasons of the NCAA tournaments have seen the top teams being crowned as champions. Three of the last four championships have been won by the No. 1 seeds (Duke in 2015, North Carolina in 2017, and Villanova last year. The Villanova Wildcats also won it in 2016 as the No. 2 seed.

Searching for the best

After Sunday, March Madness officially starts with the 68 remaining schools.

Matches start on Tuesday with the First Four featuring the last four teams that qualified for the tournament to cut the field down to just 64 teams. From there the field will be broken down into four regions of 16 teams each. The 64 teams will then play two rounds until the field is down to 32. By the end of that week, the competition marches on to the Sweet 16 beginning March 28th. The Final Four is slated on the weekend of that week.

According to a report by Cnet, Zion Williamson and the Duke Blue Devils are the prohibitive favorites. Can the Blue Devils repeat their victory four years ago? The top teams of each division will be out to deny them another title. Duke’s rivals in the ACC namely Virginia and North Carolina will try to deny them a championship.

Top teams in the other division such as LSU, Kentucky, and Tennessee in the SEC and Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference will also give Duke a run for their money. It will also be interesting to watch the bubble teams such as Florida, NC State, Texas, to name just a few.

Upsets in NCAA history

March Madness has also seen top teams being upset by much lower teams.

Over the years, there have been several upsets in the tournament. Just last year, one of the strongest teams in the NCAA Virginia was upset by 16th seed UMBC in the first round. MSN revealed that this was the first time in NCAA Tournament history that a No. 1 seed lost in the opening round. Another upset in the history of the tournament is when No 1 UConn was beaten by George Mason University in the Elite Eight.

The Huskies were the top favorites to win the national championship. UConn had future NBA star Rudy Gay and Marcus Williams.

  • Here is the full schedule of the NCAA Tournament
  • March 19 First Four
  • March 20 First Four
  • March 21 Round 1
  • March 22 Round 1
  • March 23 Round 2
  • March 24 Round 2
  • March 28 Sweet 16
  • March 29 Sweet 16
  • March 30 Elite 8
  • March 31: Elite 8
  • April 6: Final Four
  • April 8: National Championship Game