MARCH Madness first began in 1939, where the first NCAA men’s basketball tournament ever was held with the University of Oregon beating Ohio State University with a score of 46-33. The title ‘March Madness’ is originally from a Illinois high school basketball tournament from 1908. This phrase ‘March Madness’ stayed confined to Illinois high-school ball until 1982, and in 1996 NCAA and IHSA battled in court for the title ‘March Madness.’ In the end they both gave up on going to court and decided on forming the March Madness Athletic Association. They now both get to use the name- IHSA uses it for their high school tournaments, and NCAA uses it for their college tournament.

Granger is getting “mad” for March Madness. Every year, college basketball teams face off to compete in a tournament to be the best college team through the month of March. At Granger, we have a couple of students that have their own teams they are rooting for this year. Some students will be staying loyal to their teams even if they aren’t too confident in the team’s ability to win. “I am rooting for BYU, but they probably are not going to get into it,” Alex Wilson (12) said.

Other students are paying attention to those who are exceeding expectations, and have the best chance at winning. “I will be rooting for Villanova, they won it last year or two years ago, and it was cool ‘cause it was a change in teams. I like to see a repeat team win. I want to see them beat the big names like Duke and Kentucky- the teams I don’t really like,” Zack Parkin (10) said.

Some students at Granger have been watching March Madness for as long as they can remember. Some students even remember the first game that they watched. “I was with my family and we were watching a really close BYU game, and they ended up winning in the end, it was really sweet,” Aaron Bently (12) said.

According to howstuffworks.com, “The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournaments are an American tradition that sends millions of fans into a synchronized frenzy each year. It’s this chaos that gives the tournament its March Madness nickname. March Madness is the concentrated hype of 68 teams vying for college basketball’s biggest prize. It’s the last-second, buzzer-beating baskets, the euphoria of winning to play another day and the agony of losing and going home.”

According to foxsports.com, “ It’s been a long tradition that the tournament champions have cut down the nets to take home, but since 1986, the winning school has also been given the hardwood court, too. Many sell and/or auction off pieces to fans. Thirty-five different teams have won the NCAA tournament, but UCLA leas all schools with 11 total titles.”

Selection Sunday will begin March 11th, where they reveal which 68 teams have made the cut for this years basketball championships, and it’ll be streamed live on NCAA.com.

The first game of the tournament or the first four will be in Dayton on March 13th and 14th. This year there are no games held in Utah, but it is hoped that there may be some next year. The final four games will be in San Antonio on March 31 to April 2.

The students at Granger are looking forward to March Madness. They can not wait to watch the games. Some students even keep up to date through some of the players competing this year. “I’ve been following Elijah Bryant for just about a month, he’s just, he is really good and he made a Youtube channel so I started watching on there, and now I just really like watching him play, I think he will most likely make it to the NBA,” Wilson said.

Granger Lancers are getting hyped for this year’s March Madness and they can not wait to see how the results of the brackets turn out. Some students even fill out their own with their families. “Me and my dad watch the games, we fill out brackets and put money on it and that stuff and just have fun with it,” Zack said.