Gather up, sportsmen, college students, and basketball fans, because today we will talk about NCAA Men’s Basketball, and the 2017-2018 season in particular.
NCAA History
NCAA, or National Collegiate Athletic Association, was founded in 1906, but became known as its today’s name only in 1910. Since then, it has functioned as a non-profit organization that regulates the North American institutions’ and conferences’ athletes, organizes the numerous athletic programs of colleges and universities in the US and Canada, and aids over 480 thousand college student-athletes that participate in college sports.
One of the most popular sports championships that the NCAA awards is that of basketball.
NCAA 2017-2018
The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament for the 2017-2018 season was held on March 13th, 2018, and had 68 teams competing against each other in a single-elimination tournament. Here are some of the notable winners and competitors:
- The champions of the season were the Villanova Wildcats, who took their third title, fourth title game, and sixth Final Four.
- The runners-up were the Michigan Wolverines, who had their seventh title game, and eighth Final Four.
- The semifinalists were the Kansas Jayhawks with their fifteenth Final Four, and the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers with their second Final Four.
- The winning coach of the season was Jay Wright, who took his second title.
Pizza Hut Controversy
The championship was covered on television, the Internet, and even radio. TBS’s broadcast of the game was heavily criticized, however. The viewers noted the constant technical problems and an unnecessary advertisement of Pizza Hut, as well as an untraditional format in which the teams were unveiled.
Native American Mascot Controversy
Another interesting fact to note would be the so-called Native American Mascot Controversy and how it has affected this basketball tournament. The thing is that a lot of sports teams have mascots related to the Native American tribes or the First Nations.
Since the 1960s, these have been perceived as racist, so many teams had to either change their official mascots or get a permission from the corresponding tribes to continue using their mascots. This way, for example, in 2012, North Dakota dropped the Fighting Sioux, and changed it to Fighting Hawks in 2015. Before that, Arkansas State transformed their Indians into Red Wolves, while Louisiana-Monroe had Indians become Warhawks.
And these are just the most recent examples. Such alterations have been made both in the US and Canadian sports teams, but many remain unchanged.
Conclusion
These were the most newsworthy facts about the NCAA Men’s Basketball. There’s also the Women’s division, but that is a story for a different day. What do you think? Who is your favorite team and who will you be rooting for the next season?
Did you like this article? Share it with your friends and followers to let them find out more about the entertaining sport that’s called basketball! Let them see that you follow trends!
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