With over 70 million brackets made this year alone and 10.4 billion dollars in bets placed, this year’s March Madness was exciting. For the fans, it’s been a roller coaster of emotions. Unfortunately for the bracket makers and betters, it wasn’t a particularly easy tournament to predict. 

This year’s final four had one very notable surprise that shocked many people. Loyola-Chicago, an explosive 11th seed surpassed everyone’s expectations and made it past the difficult and unpredictable early rounds of the tournament into the Final Four, a position held by just two previous 11th seed teams in history. Loyola beat three very good teams to make it to the final 4, only to lose by 12 to Michigan. Loyola first beat Miami FL in a close game 64-62, and went on to beat both Tennessee and Nevada by 1.

Michigan, Loyola’s defeater, also had a few close calls early on in the tournament. Michigan had a quiet first and second round, winning their second game by only 1 against Houston. For the rest of the tournament, they played very well and had no issues beating any teams.

Kansas, a well-coached team with a similar play style to Michigan, appeared to dominate every team that they played, up until their last. They beat Duke in a high scoring game, which had fans believing that Kansas was championship material. Kansas lost to Villanova 79-95 from a lights out performance by Villanova. 

The last and definitely not least team, Villanova, showed up once again to take home the Championship for the second time in 3 years. Villanova blew through every single team in the tournament, beating every team they played by at least 10 points. Junior Kyle Creeser said, “I’ve always loved Villanova and I knew they were a powerhouse team this year, so I picked them to win to all.” Villanova’s performance in this year’s March Madness has given them a lot of recognition and has confirmed their dominant position in the league for years to come.