March Madness is any basketball player’s favorite time of the year! March Madness is the most famous basketball tournament in the world and is full of thrills and excitement. As we all know Covid-19 has set the last two years back and even caused the 2020 March Madness tournament to cancel altogether.
In the midst of a pandemic, the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) brightened people’s year with the exciting return of the tournament. With a global pandemic still occurring, the NCAA has to take extreme precautions to maintain the safety of its players and keep this tournament up and going. Before the pandemic, there would be games held in regional spots held throughout the United States. Considering that this tournament contains 64 teams that participate it would be tough to travel that much with a virus going around. To limit the spread of Covid-19, the NCAA is holding all of their games in Indiana with most playing in Indianapolis.
The capacity of fans at the games in Indiana is to be held to 25%. Lucas Oil Stadium is the building that these ball clubs get to compete in and it holds 9,100 people. Because of the Covid safety precautions taken, 2,275 is the max amount of fans in the building.
Basketball fans at CHS are excited about the return of March Madness.
Senior Armand Nunez and basketball guard said, “It’s been a tradition every year to watch March Madness. I’m excited for it to finally be back in a safe fashion and be just as entertaining as other years.”
CHS Junior Stephen Behil said, “It’s good for sports to finally be back. With school being back and March Madness here, it feels like things are moving back towards normality.”
The NCAA has still had COVID-19 be an obstacle this year as Oregon vs. VCU game in the first round was canceled due to exposure to VCU athletes.
A big trend this year has been big upsets as big favorites like Ohio State were upset by Oral Roberts University. Pac-12 has found success as well as Oregon and USC are still contenders and will face off on Sunday, March 28th to go to the Elite 8. Along with those teams, Oregon State who was seeded at 12, has moved onto the Elite 8 today after a win against seed 8, Loyola Chicago.
To fit with the theme of the past year, fans and players have been grateful to get back into sports. To see big sporting events like March Madness to return is a good sign for anyone looking to return to a “normal” lifestyle and bigger news for sports fans everywhere.
Camasonian journalists Zach Gittings and Luke Dizon contributed to this article.
