The 2018 March Madness Tournament was one you shouldn’t have missed. The annual event causes anger and emotion through people and takes place from March 13- April 2. Teachers, Mr. Murphy and Mr. Thomsen, and students, Brian Cantalupo and Aidan Castro are in a complete state of shock of what went down this year.

Murphy, a 7th & 8th grade teacher at WMS, said he first had Virginia, “but that didn’t go so well”, now he has Purdue. Murphy just really likes how they play basketball and he likes their coach, overall, he thinks they play basketball “very well”. The most shocking thing Murphy has seen was the UMBC bench celebrations,, “The most shocking thing I’ve seen this year was when UMBC beat Virginia and the UMBC bench was doing Fortnite dances.”

Murphy said he “would’ve liked to see more upsets,” but UMBC defeating Virginia “crushed” his bracket right off the start. “It’s the most fun thing there is in basketball, of course the NBA is fun, but college players, basketball is all they have while NBA players are making millions of dollars.” Murphy said of the excitement that comes with college basketball games.

6th grader, Brian Cantalupo, stated, “I had Duke, now I have Loyola-Chicago. I want them to win because they are the underdogs and Sister Jean has the ‘power of Christ’ to help them make it this far.” Cantalupo likes the game of basketball because it doesn’t come easy, he says “you have to work hard” in order to become successful. “UMBC beating Virginia destroyed my bracket; I had Virginia going to the Final Four,” explained Cantalupo. “UMBC defeating Virginia, they were the first 16 seed to beat the 1 seed and they made history which was impressive,” said Cantalupo about the most shocking thing he’s seen this year.

Thomsen, a 6th, 7th, & 8th grade teacher enjoys to watch college basketball because of the competitiveness the teams show. Thomsen believes that in the tournament, there really isn’t a better team. The teams have to play right at the right time to go far. Thomsen finds Loyola-Chicago to be the most interesting thing through the tournament. “Loyola-Chicago, they are playing right at the right time, and Sister Jean has been a big inspiration throughout their run,” stated Thomsen. Thomsen thought his brackets were “garbage” when he had picked 8 and had Virginia going far in all of them.

7th grader, Aidan Castro stated, “I like March Madness because every year my family and I make bets on who will the whole thing, which is pretty fun and cool.” The craziest thing Castro has seen this year had to be UMBC beating Virginia. “It was the first 16 seed to beat the 1 seed which and they made history which was pretty cool” stated Castro. “I like March Madness because of the hype that goes into it and the competitiveness the teams show which is pretty fun,” Castro explained.

The upsets that happened this year totally destroyed Castro’s bracket, ”It was pretty crazy to see a lot of the higher seeds defeating the lower seeds which was pretty impressive and it destroyed my bracket, “I originally made 2 brackets and had Virginia winning one but I’m happy because in my other one I had Villanova winning it all.” Make sure to watch the tournament that takes place once a year to experience greater and newer upsets throughout the tournament!