1. Experience Matters-
This March Madness season saw many experienced teams make it farther than younger and less experienced teams. One of the biggest games that saw this was the Houston Cougars vs. Duke Blue Devils. The Houston Cougars are one of the most experienced teams in the country, led by 5th-year senior L.J. Cryer and 5th-year senior J’Wan Roberts. Duke is led by Freshman superstars Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, and Khaman Maluach. At the end of the game, Duke was up 6 points with less than a minute to go, but due to crucial turnovers and inexperience, Duke collapsed and ended up losing 70-67. This game showed the experience and calmness of the Cougars, and this ability led them to the National Championship.
2. The SEC Hype was Real-
The SEC set a record-breaking 14 teams making the tournament. They had multiple 1 and 2 seeds in the bracket and were considered the best basketball conference. However, some analysts thought the SEC was overhyped and not that good. In the first round, 8 out of the 14 teams won their game and moved on to the Round of 32. In the Sweet 16, 7/16 teams featured were from the SEC, and the majority of teams were playing against each other in this round. Then the Elite 8 featured 4 SEC teams going against other conferences. Later on, the Final 4 featured both the Auburn Tigers and the Florida Gators. After that, the Florida Gators ended up winning the Championship. But, it wasn’t even just the fact they set records by teams and the champion; it was the fact that all the SEC teams played well, and there didn’t seem to be one weak team for that conference. Florida ran the whole tournament and dominated every opponent, and the same with Auburn. But, there were a few surprise teams such as Ole Miss and Arkansas who pulled off a couple of upsets to advance in the tournament.
3. Never trust the ACC-
The Atlantic Coastal Conference (ACC) is one of the historically best conferences in basketball. However, that was not the case this season. The ACC had 4 teams make the tournament, and only 1 out of 4 teams made it to the second round. The Louisville Cardinals were the favorite in their matchup vs. Creighton and ended up losing by 14. The 11-seed North Carolina lost to 6-seed Ole Miss by 7. RJ Davis, the UNC Star, played his final game in college during the tournament, and with North Carolina’s bad tournament loss, they had a lot of young players transfer out to other power schools. Then finally, Clemson got upset by McNeese in the first round, and this game was horrible from the start for Clemson. The only positive takeaway from the ACC was the Duke Blue Devils, who made the Final 4 but collapsed to Houston in the final minute.