Brackets were busted. Sweat riddled couches and bar stools. Faces were palmed. Fists were pumped. Tears were shed. Dreams were made and crushed. Cardiac arrest seemed imminent. March Madness was in itself, mad.

I’m pretty sure there were fans, casual or diehard, that were ill-advisingly calling a National Championship—a la Denzel Valentine, and were truly upset like their teams. This weekends tournament came down to one thing and one thing only, coaching. 

Teams were out coached, BAD. Situations that they should not put their team in, happened:

• Temple had a player who had a broken hand shoot FTs to win the game, he missed. 
• WVU was not prepared for a Stephen F Austin team who was on a 20 GAME WINNING STREAK. 
• Northern Iowa should’ve called a timeout after their first 2 TO’s to mix up their inbounds so A&M doesn’t come back down 12 in 44 seconds to win in 2OT.
• MSU didn’t prepare for MTSU and was punched in the mouth and didn’t make much adjustments leading into an embarrassing loss.
• Arizona cannot use an excuse of Wichita State having a game advantage because they were clearly out coached throughout the whole game. (Kudos to coach Marshall for full court pressing the whole game. Gotta love the aggressiveness and tenacity!)

Those were just a few examples of why coaching is key in this tournament, rather than talent. Ooh segway- it’s time to take away the demeaning term “Mid-Major” because they continue to kick the “Major” teams ass every year. The name rings in the same tone as “Third World Country” or “Second Tier”. They may like it, because it gives them a chip on their shoulder a ‘Me against the world’ attitude and mantra. However, these teams have been the best in the tournament.

The teams lead by upperclassmen and graduate players, have shown out against the young one and done and poorly coached deep pocketed programs. Eventually they will lose, like Wichita State or keep running like the Zags. These teams defy the odds and inspire all of the kids watching saying, ‘if you can’t make the big schools there are still schools out there with a spot for you, and you can be equally or more successful’. It’s the madness of this tournament of March.

The first weekend of the NCAA Tournament has brought excitement and devastation. But it also brings us more great college action to watch in the coming weeks. We’ll be glued to screens and seats for the ultimate unknown narrative that has been penned from this weekend, ‘who’s going to win the title?’

Photo via of southfloridareporter.com