The Final Four was filled with all kinds of madness, just like the rest of the tournament leading up to it. Texas Tech reached their first ever Final Four after they shocked Michigan State, and Virginia slid past Auburn to reach the championship one year after making history in the wrong way. This tournament all around was a great one to watch. Another year passes where no one had a perfect bracket, but that’s the reality of March Madness. No one is perfect.

Virginia started off the tournament in style, paying back the fans who dreaded their first round loss to a No. 16 seeded UMBC last year. They beat Gardner-Webb 71-56. The rest of the games that Virginia played in were nail biters. They beat No. 9 seed Oklahoma 63-51, then No. 12 seed Oregon 53-49. Those weren’t even the closest games that Virginia played in. They beat No. 3 seed Purdue in Overtime after tying it up with a last second shot at the end of regulation, 80-75. Their first game of the Final Four was against No. 5 seed Auburn. This was the game that everyone though Virginia would drop, but they fought through the pain and won 63-62 to reach the championship.

Texas Tech was placed at No. 3 in their region. Leading up to the championship, they won a lot of notable games. Tech started off the tournament in a great way, beating No. 14 seed Northern Kentucky 72-57. They beat the 3-point beast of a team, No. 6 Buffalo, 78-58. This is when it gets crazy. Texas Tech rallied to beat No. 2 seed Michigan 63-44, No. 1 seed Gonzaga 75-69, and No. 2 seed Michigan State 61-51.  Texas Tech proved that they were a solid team by beating teams who were favored to win the championship, such as Gonzaga, Michigan, and Michigan State.

The championship was set. No. 3 seed Texas Tech versus No. 1 seed Virginia. Both teams in their first national championship games in their school histories. Virginia was up for pretty much the whole game, before the last few minutes of regulation. Texas Tech started to score point after point, and took the lead with less than a minute to play in regulation. The magic that has been created this year by Virginia showed up again, as they tied the game to send it into overtime. Once overtime started, The Cavaliers put in everything they had and won their last game of the season by 8 points, 85-77.

The college basketball season is sadly over, and people all over the world are going to be studying for the duration of next season in order to put together the first perfect bracket. Noah Hedges, professional bracketologist, signing off until next year.