March Madness - The Chaos of the NCAA Basketball Championship

What a month for college sports, the NCAA Basketball Tournament being one of the most popular. Let’s discuss the results of March, and who the final four are, going forward to the finals!

(Image credit to ESPN)

The first round saw Duke, TCU, St John’s, Kansas, Louisville, Michigan St., UCLA, and Uconn going through in their group.

Florida, Iowa, Vanderbilt, Nebraska, VCU, Illinois, Texas A&M and Houston also moved onto the second round for their group.

Arizona, Utah ST., High Point, Arkansas, Texas, Gonzaga, Miami, Purdue and Michigan, Saint Louis, Texas Tech, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky and Iowa St also progressed past the first round.

The standout performances from the first round include Florida’s 114-55 win against Prairie View A&M, Illinois’ 105-70 victory against Penn, High Point’s extremely close 83-82 clutch against Wisconsin and Iowa St. 's 108-74 success over Tennessee St.

The second round saw Duke, St John’s, Michigan St., Uconn, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, and Houston go through to the Sweet 16 round, joined by Arizona, Arkansas, Texas, Purdue, Michigan, Alabama, Tennessee and Iowa St.

A Duke 80-75 St. John’s game saw Duke progress to the Elite Eight, where they were joined by Uconn after they defeated Michigan St. 67-63. Iowa’s 77-71 defeat of Nebraska sent them through to verse Illinois after a 65-55 defeat over Houston.

Arizona’s 109-88 win over Arkansas sent them through to the Elite Eight, Purdue’s 98-77 game against Texas, sent them through as well. Michigan also joined the Elite Eight after a 90-77 game against Alabama. Tennessee beat Iowa St. 76-62 to join Elite Eight.

The Elite Eight was where the stakes really climbed, every team had proven themselves in the three previous rounds but now had to fight harder than ever before to progress further, tight scorelines are proof of how nervewracking these games were.

Game leaders of the Uconn-Duke game were Uconn's Tarris Reed Jr. with 26 points and Duke’s Cameron Boozer with 27 points, these two also led rebounds, Reed Jr. with 9 and Boozer with 8. The game ended with a 73-72 scoreline, with UConn clinching the win by one point. Duke were devastated with the loss, but UConn couldn’t be happier with the win, progressing them to the Final Four.

Top point scorers of the Iowa-Illinois game were Bennett Stirtz with 24 points, and Illinois’ Keaton Wagler with 25 points. The game was a 71-59 sweep for Illinois, sending them through to the Final Four.

Arizona vs Purdue was a crazy game with Oscar Cluff leading points for Purdue with 14, 6 points less than Arizona’s point leader, Koa Peat with 20. The game ended 79-64 to the impressively dominant Arizona team, sending them through to the next round.

Michigan’s lead point scorer of the game, Yaxel Lendeborg ended with 27 points, whilst Tennessee’s Ja’Kobi Gillespie held 21 points for the Elite Eight game. Michigan won the game 95-62, sending the very happy team to the Final Four, the same day as the Michigan Hockey boys made the Frozen Four, a very good day for the University of Michigan!

The final four teams are now, UConn vs Illinois and Ariona vs Michigan. The stakes are now higher than ever and the tension is palpable from all four teams in practice, press interviews and training. 

Make sure to tune into the Final Four games and then the Championship game to see who takes the final victory!

Article written by Milla Sinfield © Milla Sinfield 2026