Cinderella's court: March Madness underway
Patrick Curry - Staff Writer
Starting with the women’s side through the first two rounds, there haven’t been too many upsets at all.
Which means that most of the teams that are seeded higher (having a better win to loss record) are winning their games against teams seeded lower than them.
The first round hosted a lot of blow outs, which is to be expected because a lot of these teams are stacked with great players and the gap in talent is being put on display. For example, third seeded LSU beat 14th seeded San Diego St 103-48, and although all the games in the first round were not this lop sided, it was easy to tell which team was the higher seed.
There were no upsets in the second round, but the games were a lot closer and more competitive. But the most important part of this series is what happened Monday, March 24th when USC faced Mississippi State. In this game, they would blow Mississippi State out which was expected, but what was not expected was Juju Watkins getting injured early in the first quarter. It was later found that Watkins had torn her ACL. Moving forward will be very tough for the Trojans (USC) because although they are the number one seed in their conference, they will now be without their best player for the rest of the tournament. Many people now have the number two seeded UConn as the favorite in their potential matchup in the final four now.
Like the women’s side, there were not too many upsets. Many of the higher seeds made quick work of their opponents, but some were in for a bit of a closer game. For example, Duke faced off against St. Mary’s and won 93-49. Whereas Alabama (the two seed) had a closer game with the 15th seed Robert Morris, the game ended 90-81 with Alabama taking the win.
Coming into this tournament there was a lot of talk about whether Cooper Flagg would be healthy for the first round, because of an ankle injury he received Thursday, March 13th against Georgia State. This injury left Flagg unable to play in the ACC championship game. Although Duke was still able to win there was a lot of talk about how good they would be without their best player on the court. Luckily for them, Flagg is back killing on the court in his return. Flagg led the team in scoring with 14 points and led the team in rebounds grabbing 7. In his second game back, he led the team in rebounds and assists with 9 boards and 6 assists, he was also the team’s second leading scorer with 18 points behind Tyrese Proctor who had 25 points.
With the return of the projected no.1 pick in this year’s draft, many have moved Duke back into the spotlight to win it all. But, this wouldn’t be “March Madness” without a few “busted brackets.”