What We've Learned From March Madness

Now that the Final Four is set, and many people are calling it a "bad" Final Four, it's time to look back on the assumptions that we had entering the tournament.

Gonzaga is a pretender

This has become an annual presumption when it comes to filling out brackets, Gonzaga enters the tournament with somewhere between three and six to seven losses, often as a top-5 seed. Then, the Bulldogs are "upset" earlier than a team with their record "should", having reached the Elite Eight only once since 2000, despite making the tournament in every season.

This year though, the Zags entered March with only one loss, and with wins over tournament teams including Arizona, Iowa State, Florida, and St. Mary's. Even with the better than usual resume, much of the basketball community still did not believe in Mark Few and Gonzaga. Now, the Zags are in the Final Four, and have proved that this team is more than just the best team in a sub-par conference.

The SEC is just a football conference

The SEC only got five teams into the tournament, two of which were 8 and 9 seeds, including Vanderbilt, the only 15 loss team to ever make it into the field of 64. Fast forward two weekends, and three of the SEC's teams are in the Elite Eight. The other two didn't just roll over either, Vanderbilt was a last minute brain fart away from a second round matchup with Gonzaga, and Arkansas took North Carolina down to the wire.

As for Kentucky, South Carolina, and Florida, all three showed that they were legitimate contenders, combining to knock off Duke, Baylor, Virginia, and UCLA. Only South Carolina made it to the final weekend, defeating Florida, while Kentucky fell in the final seconds to North Carolina. However, the SEC was the only conference with more than one team in the Elite Eight.

The more important thing here is that Florida is back, and South Carolina could be a force to be reckoned with under Frank Martin in years to come. While this is great for college basketball as a whole, it could be quite annoying in years to come if the rest of the country has to hear it from SEC fans about football AND basketball.

The ACC is the best conference in basketball

This one is tough, because while most of the ACC teams bowed out early, North Carolina is still standing as we near the final weekend, and the favorite to avenge their last second loss in the National Championship a year ago.

It's hard to justify the ACC being the premier college basketball conference after only one of their nine teams made it past the first weekend, but with only the SEC having multiple representatives in the Elite Eight, it might not quite be time to dethrone the ACC just yet.

Two of the ACC's losses (Duke and Virginia) came to Elite Eight teams in Florida and South Carolina, while Louisville fell to a Michigan team that came within seconds of beating Final Four bound Oregon. So, the ACC may not have the most elite teams in the country, but top to bottom it's hard to argue that the ACC remains the toughest and strongest conference.

The B1G had a down year

Entering the second weekend, it seemed like this one was wrong, with five of the seven B1G teams winning their first round matchups (Maryland fell to Elite Eight finalist Xavier), and three advancing to the sweet sixteen. Then, the B1G ended up with no teams in the Elite Eight, with Wisconsin, Purdue, and Michigan all falling in the Sweet Sixteen.

This doesn't mean that the B1G has fallen from the elite conferences in college basketball, but that this year the conference just didn't have the elite caliber teams that they have in past years, with Michigan State struggling through injuries, and Wisconsin struggling late in the season.

That being said, the B1G is primed for a rebound year next season, with very few guaranteed departures, and a plethora of returning talent. Miles Bridges, Melo Trimble, and Caleb Swanigan are all likely to declare early for the NBA, and Derrick Walton Jr., Nigel Hayes, and Bronson Koenig are all graduating. 

However, the B1G will be loaded in the front court next season with Nick Ward, Ethan Happ, Moritz Wagner, D.J. Wilson, Nicholas Baer, and Jordan Murphy returning. Those returners will lead five of the conferences top teams (Michigan State, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, and Minnesota), while the other two (Maryland and Purdue) will hope for their stars to return to school to lead their returning supporting cast.

As we come to the conclusion of the tournament, it seems like most of the assumptions going into the tournament remain intact (assuming UNC can at least make the title game to save the ACC).

More importantly, the basketball world needs to realize that this Final Four isn't bad, it just doesn't have the full slate of big name programs that we're used to. Oregon, and Gonzaga are better than people think or want to believe, South Carolina may have the best defense in the country, and North Carolina was a lot of peoples' favorites going into the season and are looking to avenge last season's heartbreaking loss.

Finally, enjoy the last weekend of college basketball until November.