The first four games of the March Madness tournament kick off tomorrow, and students and faculty are crazy with excitement. Though the closest tournament site is miles away, the hype can be so contagious that you would think the games were going on in the field house.
“Everybody is talking about their bracket and the games going on that day. It’s especially awesome when a big upset happens during the day and you can hear everyone talking about it and freaking out about their brackets being messed up because of it,” Kunal Kothari, senior basketball player, said. “I just think it is a really cool way and interesting way to interact with people over something everybody is pretty crazy about.”
All throughout the month of March, students and adults alike are constantly watching games, discussing brackets, and deciding what teams have the best chances of winning the pool, according to Ryan Eder, junior and self professed March Madness fanatic.
“I would say people who don’t follow sports still get involved in pools just because it’s fun and everyone else is doing it too,” Christopher Bennett, girls’ varsity basketball coach, said. “I teach mostly juniors and seniors, and I’d argue that about half my students are in a pool.”
“Most of the people in my friend group get really into March Madness, and I do not usually win due to the fact I try and get too analytical with who I pick to move on. So in a way, I really mess myself up by taking it too seriously,” Eder said.
Eder is not alone in taking March Madness seriously. Students like Michael Bens, sophomore basketball player, spend countless hours researching what teams they feel will come out on top.
“Throughout the year I watch a lot of college basketball,” Bens said. “When the actual bracket comes out, I take a lot of time and really research who certain teams have beat, who’ve they lost to, where they’ll be playing, etcetera. For me, the bracket is a lot more than just a five minute process, and most of the time it takes days to finish it.”
While March Madness may be one of the best times of the year for students who are college basketball fanatics, some teachers join in on the fun as well, which allows more parts of the school to get more involved according to Bennett.
“I let kids watch March Madness in my room during passing periods or if we have down time in class and a game is on, but we never just blatantly sit down and watch it,” Bennett said. “But I do think it’s cool that it’s on in the cafeteria and the library so kids do have the opportunity to watch the games during the day.”
While Bennett is one of the teachers who allows March Madness during down time in class, some other teachers allow students to watch if they stay on task.
“During my sophomore year in Foods, a sub let my kitchen set up four phones that were all playing different March Madness games, so we were able to watch as well as work in class,” Kothari said.

Kothari has experimented with many different methods and says that people need to find what works the best for them.
“Last year I used a different strategy and really researched the teams, but usually I have a pretty good grasp of which teams are going to do well in the tournament because of all the in-season college basketball,” Kothari said, “so I normally just go with my gut.”
Though Bens and Kothari spend some time looking at the overall teams, Bennett focuses on the leadership of the teams and the timing of the games during the tournament.
“If you pay attention to March Madness, you already know that there are normally twelve versus five upsets,” Bennett said. “My personal strategy to predict the upsets is to pick good coaches in the second round and the fourth round because they only have one day to prepare their teams for the next game, so the better coaches will have a better team ready to play in the game.”
While the common goal of most people in a March Madness pool is to win, Kothari believes that there are more benefits to the tournament than money and bragging rights.
“Throughout the school day or on the weekends, everybody is talking about their bracket and the games going on that day. It’s especially awesome when a big upset happens during the day and you can hear everyone talking about it and freaking out,” Kothari said. “I just feel like March Madness is a way that, at least for a few weeks, everyone can have something in common.”