From painfully close scoring games, to disastrous or maybe even victorious brackets. The avid basketball fans can likely say they’ve been looking forward to this month for a while. March Madness has been the talk of the school ever since it started at the beginning of the month. 

This tournament has become a popular one since it started in 1939. Ever since then, 68 D1 college basketball teams have come together annually to play in this tournament. This year the tournament began on March 13th and ends on April 4th. Plenty of students have become invested in March madness, including Samantha Meents, senior.

“I actually first became interested last year when some of my friends were talking about the games and their brackets,” Meents said.  “I came to love the competitiveness of the brackets and loved being in the pools and making brackets with my friends.”

Even though Meents is a more recent fan, Rohan Modi, sophomore, says he has been interested in this long-standing tournament for years.

“I became interested in March Madness when my older brother introduced it to me when I was little,” Modi said. “I never really started creating brackets until around 7th grade, but it was always fun to create them and compete, even though the chances of a perfect bracket are incredibly slim.”

These “slim” chances Modi refers to tend to apply to everyone in general when they create their brackets. As ABC news puts it, those odds are “one in 9.2 quintillion.”

Despite this, the love for the sport and this tournament can bring people together during this season which is part of why Midi says he likes it.

“My favorite part about March Madness would probably be the fact that everyone becomes one big group to see who wins and who has who winning,” Modi said.  “At LZ, march madness is a big thing so it’s always exciting to be around other people and see what their brackets look like.”

No matter what happens in the end, it seems March madness can create a community. The basketball fans look forward to seeing who wins it all, and maybe even get some winnings of their own, which is what Meents says is part of her love for the tournament.

“I just love how we could potentially win a lot of money. Although it’s definitely a challenge, it’s still fun to get invested and you can’t help but hope for the best no matter how unlikely it all is,” Meents said. “Plus in the end of it all, I have a fun party with my family or friends, which I look forward to because we finally see a winner and the last game always gets so competitive.”