March Madness is a month long marathon and if you don’t have your Air Jordans on, you are going to be left in the dust. Luckily, Kidzworld is there to help you understand what the heck is going on. 68 teams, rankings, brackets... it's simple to follow if you brush up with a March Madness Preview like no other...
March Madness Lingo
At Kidzworld, we understand that March Madness is full of terminolgy that is intimidating to learn, so nobody really wants to figure out what really is going on... let us explain some of these big words:
NCAA: The League that organizes the 1300 College and University American basketball teams. 1300 teams and only one can become #1 in America.
CINDERELLA STORY: There is no frog in this story, unless you are talking about the head coach of the Duke Bluedevils. A Cinderella team is usually a team that no one has ever heard of, with no star players... yet they win... and they win again... and they keep surprising everyone by beating the highest ranked teams in dramatic style... everyone loves a Cinderella story and it's probably why March Madness inherited the word "madness".
NO. 1 SEED: It's wierd but there are 4 NO. 1 SEEDs in this basketball tournament. Honestly, they should rank the teams 1-68... I mean how cool would it be to see a 68th seeded team Cinderella story?
ON THE BUBBLE: Teams are selected into the March Madness tournament by a bunch of different calculations and math and craziness we don't need to understand. When a team is "on the bubble"... all that means is that they do not control their own destiny. If other teams win their final games, the bubble team is eliminated. Bubble teams are usually gathered at a big screen tv watching another game... hoping someone loses, and if they do, they scream and cheer because they have just won a spot in the tournament.
BRACKET: This is a lot easier to understand that it seems... it's basically the schedule of the tournament on one big piece of paper. It has a bunch of lines and boxes that aren't filled in until teams win or lose. A lot of people try to predict the winners and losers before the tournament even starts... you can do it for bragging rights or you can lay a couple of your mom's homeade cookies on the line against your friend's mom's cinnamon buns.
FAVORITE / UNDERDOG: When a #1 team plays a #16 team, the #16 seeded team has only won once (1996 #16 Harvard Women won!) in the entire history of March Madness. So the #16 seed is always a huge underdog and #1 seeds are always huge favorites.
SELECTION SUNDAY: Most teams make it into the tournament by winning their conference. However, a group of experts select more teams based on their performance during the regular season and playoffs. This selection is always done on the Sunday before the first round... this SUNDAY!!!
#1 Ranked Team
Gonzaga Bulldogs are Ranked #1Courtesy of the NCAA
The Gonzaga Bulldogs are this year's #1 ranked team in the Nation before the tournament starts. However, you might not want to choose them to win the whole tournament because during the regular season, they play against many easy teams compared to the rest of the country (their division has lots of weak teams). But who know? Anything could happen!!!
Are you ready!?!?
The first round games are scheduled to play on March 19 and 20. Here is the bracket with the Final Four scheduled to go down in Atlanta. Have fun!!!
NCAA March Madness 2013 BracketCourtesy of the NCAA
Have your say...
Did you have any more questions about what the heck is going on in March Madness? Let us know in the comments below...
