On  Monday, April 3, the final game of the Men’s March Madness tournament was played with UConn coming out on top against San Diego State. This game concluded a tournament filled with upsets, Cinderella stories and moments that will forever be remembered. 

While everybody was filling out brackets trying to guess the next national champion, no one would have guessed what was going to happen. Though there is usually one or two Cinderella stories in every tournament, this year was different, as every game seemed to be a toss-up; along with the fact that some schools had broken decade-long curses and records. 

Things got off to an interesting start in just the first round, as number 15 Princeton pulled the upset over number two Arizona which stunned fans all around. Along with that, both Furman and Florida Atlantic University pulled off upsets in their games. However, one that really shook the tournament up was when number one Purdue was upset by the last-place team; FDU. With a lot of low-seeds winning games, the pressure was placed on the top teams to try and repeat history and win the tournament. However, it didn’t seem to matter, as upset after upset kept occurring. Some of the most notable being number 8 Arkansas upsetting number one Kansas, number 5 Miami beating out number one Houston, number five San Diego State topping number one Alabama, and UConn pulling the upset over powerhouse Gonzaga. 

Though the tournament was full of upsets and bracket-busting games, once the elite eight and final four formed it was almost a sure shot of who would win the tournament. On one end, UConn was beating everyone in their path by at least 15 points to try and capture their fourth national title since 1999, while San Diego State was trying to win their first title in school history. The final four games, though exciting, were also scripted in a sense, as San Diego beat FAU on a last-second buzzer-beater while UConn rolled straight by Miami beating them by 13. 

As the final game was now set, it would be San Diego against UConn; a final that nobody saw coming. Though nobody had either team in the final, fans loved the battle between the two underdogs. For the first five minutes of the game, it seemed like neither team couldn’t miss; hitting shots inside the paint and from outside the arc. However, San Diego soon found itself in an eight-minute cold streak where they couldn’t seem to get anything to go their way. In the end, UConn would end up winning in dominant fashion winning  76 to 59 over San Diego, in what will be considered a tournament to be remembered for a long time after.