America is a country that has more than its fair share of iconic sporting events. Top of the list has to be the Super Bowl, the February culmination of the football season that’s watched by an estimated 113 million Americans and many more worldwide.

Then there’s the rather inaccurately-named World Series of Baseball at the end of the summer – inaccurate because the only country in the world that both teams come from is America.

And, while NBA basketball finals have a huge following, almost as popular is the college-level version, popularly known as March Madness.

This is a competition that has been held since 1939 that sees the cream of the country’s college basketball teams compete for the prestigious trophy.

It was first devised by the then coach of Ohio State, Harold Olsen, and given the unofficial name March Madness by Henry Porter of the Illinois High School association.

Its history is a fascinating one as over the years it has grown from including eight teams to today’s 68.

The format

As the name suggests, the tournament runs from mid-March up until the final in early April. This year, these dates are March 14th to April 3rd when the two teams who have made it through will compete for the trophy at the NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas.

It’s a knockout competition so to reach the final the eventual champions will have had to win at least six games in a row. Along the way, there are rounds given special nicknames including the Sweet Sixteen, the Elite Eight and the Final Four, in each case referring to the number of teams in that particular round.

At the start of the competition all of the teams who have made it through are seeded from Nos. 1 to 16. This means that weaker, lower seeded teams get the chance to take on ones that are much better, on paper at least. But this, and the knockout nature of the competition, means that there are often some pretty major upsets.

Teams to watch this year

Although the impossible can and does happen from time to time, there are certain teams whose March Madness odds suggest that they are due to do well.

Top of the list this year are the Houston Cougars. At the beginning of March they had achieved a record of 29 wins and only two losses all season. They also have the added incentive to make it through to the final as it will be played out in their own home city.

Then there are the Kansas Jayhawks. These were last year’s winners, when they beat North Carolina in a very closely-fought final with a scoreline of 82-79. They are top of their league, the so-called Big 12 with a season record of 25 wins and 6 losses.

Over the years there’s one team that has left the rest behind in terms of championship wins, the UCLA Bruins. They have been victorious 11 times, three ahead of their nearest rivals, the Kentucky Wildcats. They also look like a good prospect to make this year their 12^th ever victory standing, as they do, at the head of the Pac-12 division with a 27-4 record.

There are also several other teams in the mix as possible victors and these include Purdue Boilermakers, Alabama Crimson Tide and Baylor Bears.

Star players who could make the difference

Unsurprisingly, it’s the quality of the players who make the top teams so good and all of the ones mentioned above have stand-out stars.

For Houston it’s guard Marcus Sasser who is also their leading points-scorer averaging around 16 per game with 3.3 assists. His 82.4% success rate from free throws is also one of the very best.

Meanwhile, Kansas is very lucky to have Jalen Wilson in the team. This 6’ 8” wing averages an even more impressive 20.7 points per game and is almost always involved in the action.

UCLA has a long history of boasting a series of very good players who have gone on to enjoy huge NBA success and Jaime Jaquez Jr. looks like he may well be heading that way too. He’s not got the greatest of stats, but as his team coach Mick Cronin has said in the past, he’s flexible, adaptable and always gives 100%.

Incidentally, there are quite a few players of Nigerian origin who might well get to show off their skills in March Madness including UCLA’s Adem Bona and Baylor’s Joshua Ojianwuna, so watch out for them too.

So it’s all shaping up to be a very exciting March Madness 2023 as well as the perfect showcase of future professional stars. As to who will be victorious when it reaches its conclusion on Monday April 3rd, we’ll just have to wait and see.