On Thursday, March 21st, half of the teams playing in the west region for March Madness play. The other half of the teams in the west will play on Friday, March 22nd.
The NCAA March Madness tournament is designed for Division 1 college basketball teams. The teams that get spots to play in the tournament work all season to work towards getting a chance at winning the national championship.
The tournament is seven rounds in a single-elimination format. Selection Sunday, which was March 17th this year, announced this year’s bracket including which teams play and when.
The first teams to play from the west are Mississippi St. Vs. Michigan St. These teams are shortly followed by Arizona vs. Long Beach St., UNC vs. Wagner, and Dayton vs. Nevada.
The teams that play the following day are listed as Colgate vs. Baylor, Clemson vs. New Mexico, Alabama vs. College of Charleston, and finally St. Mary’s CA vs. Grand Canyon.
All the teams are seeded 1-16. The highest seed team plays the lowest seed team in the first round, then works towards the middle. The highest seed team in the west is UNC and the lowest is Wagner.
Brad Hutchins, one of the boys’ basketball coaches at Hidden Valley High School, said, “I have the number one seed (UNC) winning for the west.”
When asked who he thought would be in the final four for the west, Chase Gattuso (10), said, “I have Arizona going to the final four and then winning the whole thing.”
The March Madness NCAA tournament has a great west region with a lot of competitive schools.