The 2018 NCAA men’s college basketball tournament, colloquially known as March Madness, is here again. You’ve got questions? I’ve got answers.
We’re not so different, you and I. The last college basketball team I followed closely was the 1995–96 Northwestern Wildcats, who went 7–20 and were very bad at basketball. (I, too, was very bad at basketball, so I empathized.) Anyway, I don’t really watch college basketball during the regular season—I have no particular rooting interest and college basketball just isn’t as good as the pro game. But that’s why the tournament is so much fun. You never know what’s going to happen. Granted, you never know what’s going to happen in the emergency room, either.
Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield, a strong contender for national player of the year, is a great scorer and a bit of a throwback: a senior star in an era when the best players rarely stay in college for more than a couple of years. Denzel Valentine from Michigan State is also a senior guard with NBA potential; he’s got a great all-around game—bet on him to put up a triple-double at some point. Maryland has Diamond Stone and Melo Trimble, two great players with great names that go great together. Virginia has a player named Jack Salt. (Jack Salt!) You should also watch for UNC–Asheville’s Italian big man, 6-foot-9 Giacomo Zilli. You probably won’t see him in a game, because Zilli doesn’t get off the bench, but you can improve your chances of a Zilli sighting by constantly saying things like “Where’s Giacomo Zilli?” and “We want Giacomo Zilli!”
According to the AP and USA Today polls, as well as the NCAA selection committee, the best team in the tournament is Kansas. The top-ranked Jayhawks, the No. 1 seed in the South region, won 30 games this year behind the strong play of senior forward Perry Ellis—he averages 16.7 points per game and produces a hell of a pair of slacks—and the old-school leadership of three-point-shot-hating coach Bill Self. The other top-seeded teams are pretty good, too! Oregon, the No. 1 seed in the West, has a great offense that gives opponents fits; they destroyed an excellent Utah team in the Pac-12 tournament. They are coached by Dana Altman, who is not the same person as Robert Altman’s grandson Dana Altman, whom I met at a screening of Popeye in Omaha last year. Just in case you were wondering. North Carolina forward Brice Johnson is a really good player, and coach Roy Williams is the country’s foremost “Roy.” The Tar Heels are the top seed in the East, and they should go far. Virginia is the No. 1 seed in the Midwest thanks to the play of senior guard Malcolm Brogdon and the calming bench presence of the gargantuan Jack Salt; the Cavaliers have something to prove after their relatively early exits from the tournament in 2014 and 2015. The team that ousted Virginia both times? The Michigan State Spartans, who are seeded second in the Midwest this year, and could have easily been seeded first. Watch out for Michigan State.