From Issue 6, Published March 13, 2015

Ingle weighs in on who will take home the basketball crown

March Madness is the most intense time of the year for college basketball. Only the best of the best teams make it all the way to the Championship Game. Usually, the winner of the championship changes every year, and can sometimes be unexpected.
Anyone who pays attention to March Madness fills out a prediction bracket. People usually look forward to filling out a bracket (or brackets) because they believe they have a chance to become rich in the process.
American business investor, Warren Buffett, offers $1 billion to anyone who gets a perfect bracket. Some people can win that type of money just for filling out the right teams in the right boxes.
I fill a bracket out every year because I want the same chance to win some nice money. And filling out a bracket is very fun too. Sadly, the odds of filling out a perfect bracket is 1-to-9 quintillion.
Plus, there are so many upsets during March Madness, it is nearly impossible to have a perfect bracket, so people have the slimmest chance of getting close to winning that much cash.
For anyone unfamiliar, the order teams play and who they play is not just random. There are four regions that teams are divided into, geographically. There is Midwest, South, East and West. Teams are placed in these areas are determined by where they are in the United States.
There are 16 teams for each area of the bracket. That makes 64 teams total that participate in March Madness.
The winners of each conference automatically are included in the 64 teams. The rest of the teams are chosen by what teams have the best records.
The first round of March Madness starts next week, March 17-18. After the first round, and all of the teams have played, there are only 32 teams left. After the second round, there are only 16 teams left. This known as the Sweet Sixteen. Winners after the third round advance to the Elite Eight teams. After the fourth round, the teams left are known as the Final Four teams. After that, is the NCAA basketball Championship, which will be held this year at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on April 4.
Being from Indiana, I dislike the Kentucky Wildcats very much. Even though they are ranked No. 1, and are the only team with zero losses, I still do not like Kentucky.
Personally, I like watching all of the Big 10 teams play. This area ranges from Nebraska to New Jersey. Two Big 10 teams are the Purdue Boilermakers and the Indiana Hoosiers.
What Purdue has which most teams in the Big 10 doesn’t have is height. There is no guy on Purdue shorter than 5’10” on the roster. Height is one major factor that most other Big 10 teams lack.
The motto that represents the Indiana Hoosiers this season is to “live and die by the 3”. This means that if Indiana is not knocking down three-pointers, their wins will turn into losses. Since Indiana lacks height, three-pointers are what they live for. Most of the time, Indiana is on point with their shots.
Since I admire all of the Big 10, I want a Big 10 team to win the Championship. Currently, Wisconsin is ranked No. 6 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. I want to see Wisconsin go all the way to win the James Naismith trophy.
I hope Kentucky gets blown out by Wisconsin in the Championship Game. What would be even better is if Kentucky does not even make it to the Championship Game.
Like I said before, I want the Wisconsin Badgers to win the Championship. There is a good chance that Wisconsin can go all the way because of their biggest play maker, Frank Kaminsky. Kaminsky averages 18 points and 8 rebounds a game. Frank Kaminsky could be the key to Wisconsin’s second National Championship.
It’s not just Wisconsin which has a playmaker. The Kentucky Wildcats actually have two major scorers.
These powerful players are the Harrison brothers. Andrew Harrison averages 10 points a game and Aaron Harrison averages 14 points a game. These elite forces are a major reason why Kentucky is undefeated.
What I expect out of March Madness are lots and lots of upsets. I also hope the Wisconsin Badgers win the NCAA championship and the Kentucky Wildcats go home feeling ashamed.

Column by Jace Ingle