The 2026 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament,better known as March Madness, started up this week. The tournament is a 64-team, single elimination tournament that millions look forward to each year, including some of HHS’ very own.
“My favorite part of March is obviously the madness. It’s not March unless there’s a little bit of madness. I love seeing the top seeds go down, especially when they are teams that I don’t like, like Duke or UVA,” Senior Nolan Beach said.
While Beach watches the tournament for the great basketball, Senior Abby Gibson looks forward to cheering on the Duke Blue Devils, her favorite team, each year.
“My favorite part about March Madness is watching Duke play because they’re my favorite team ever and I’ve been rooting for them with my dad since I was really little. I feel a lot better about our chances this year than I thought I would. We did, unfortunately, have injuries, so we won’t be as full as I wanted, but I think I’ve seen a lot of improvement in some players that I wasn’t expecting to, and I’m a lot more optimistic than I was compared to last year,” Gibson said.
In addition to watching, millions of people each year fill out brackets to predict the tournament. No one in history has ever filled out a perfect bracket. The odds are so low, around one in 9.2 quintillion, that the upstart sports trading company Kalshi has placed a $1 Billion bounty on a perfect bracket for this year’s tournament. Gibson detailed her strategy when filling out her yearly bracket.
“I honestly just like to put in a few upsets just to make things interesting, but for the most part, I keep mostly one, two, and three seeds to at least the second weekend,” Gibson said.
The large 64-team bracket is divided into four separate regions, and the winners of each of those regions are deemed the “Final Four”, and this year, they will play in Indianapolis to face off for a national championship. Beach spent time doing research on the matchups until his Final Four felt just right,
“Some may disagree with mine, but I don’t care. I have Kansas, Houston, Arkansas, and Michigan as my Final Four. Kansas has some pretty nasty defense. I’m pretty sure it’s top like, six or seven, so I like them. Houston, they made it to the championship last year. I had Florida win last year, so why not have Houston get their redemption? I have Arkansas because the SEC is pretty crazy this year. And Michigan is just Michigan. They are super dangerous this year,” Beach said.
Each year, there seems to be a team that makes it much farther than they are supposed to. In tournament terms, they are called Cinderellas. Gibson noticed a Cinderella contender right when the brackets came out.
“I think 11-seeded VCU is going to make it farther than anyone guesses this year. I love some of their players, and some of the teams they have to play have some injuries, so I think they could win some games,” Gibson said. (UPDATE: She was right! VCU upset 6-seeded North Carolina in round one, 82-78 in overtime before eventually losing to 3-seeded Illinois.)
It’s easy to see why March Madness is loved by so many people across the country. It’s three weeks of some of the best basketball of the year, with many people even preferring March Madness over the NBA Playoffs. Beach could not agree more with the hype that surrounds the tournament.
“This is by far the best tournament in sports. All the emotion, the feel-good stories, the buzzer-beaters, everything. It can’t be said about many other tournaments that it truly is anyone’s game,” Beach said.
Until a champion is crowned, every fan and team involved will be looking forward to the confetti falling in Indianapolis after the final buzzer, dreaming of their One Shining Moment.
