NCAA Basketball: Reflecting on the upsets from 2022 NCAA Tournament

As is the norm in the month of March and all its Madness, there was no shortage of highly ranked NCAA basketball teams losing to – what everybody thought were – inferior teams in the NCAA Tournament. Whether a team emerges unexpectedly from the first round or strings a couple of victories together as support from the masses swells behind them, teams will accomplish more than was expected of them.

For those watching the 2022 Men’s NCAA Tournament, they witnessed David topple Goliath as well as having the opportunity to see Cinderella go on a run through the tournament as if it was one minute to midnight. In the moment, being caught up in the excitement, it not only seemed improbable but impossible that an unproven, untested almost unknown school could defeat a contender in one of the Big Six conferences.

Such things can usually be said about “the moment” and while it may be shocking to those in the stands and watching at home, it was always a possibility – regardless of the moment- to those on the basketball court for the forty minutes. A moment is just that in comparison to the forty minutes on the court, it is just a moment.

Now that the Kansas Jayhawks have defeated the North Carolina Tar Heels for a National Championship we can reflect upon what transpired, without being clouded by the excitement of the ‘moment’ By reflecting we can discover why these victories were ‘a moment’ and why the outcomes were so unexpected?  Was the evidence missed, ignored, or were the victors the better team all along? It is time to reflect upon the upsets, so we can avoid making the same mistakes in our bracket next March.