![At the bottom of the third inning, the Lions are still scoreless. Rowe stands at home plate, preparing to bat, while Vandenbrink stands off to the side as the next batter up. Despite having the bases loaded, the team was unable to score any runs. “It’s just the beginning of the season. We’re just going to be playing out best by June, [and] that’s where champions are,” Rowe said.](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/IMG_3077-1200x900.jpg)
![All smiles. The group poses for a photo with last year’s book, “This is Our House,” along with their award for third Best in Show. Meikle, who was an Editor-in-Chief for the yearbook last year as well, holds both and stands at the center of the group. “That was an amazing feeling, going and grabbing the third place award,” Meikle said. “All of it paid off. I cried so much over that book, being able to receive [the award] was one of the highlights of my high school career, it was like the coolest thing ever.”](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/8bookpose_philly-1200x800.jpg)
Let the Madness begin: Fill out your brackets and you could win a billion dollars
The field is set and 68 teams have been chosen for this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament. With 16 basketball games per day over Thursday and Friday, what else could be better? This year should be full of many upsets and bracket busters, but that is what March is for.
The defending National Champions, Louisville Cardinals (29-5) return as a four seed; a surprise to many after winning the American Athletic Conference tournament against number seven seed Connecticut. However, in a tough Midwest region of the bracket it will be a challenge if they want to reach the Final Four.
The number one overall seed was awarded to the Florida Gators (32-2), who claimed the outright SEC Title and the SEC Tournament title. Their only two losses of the year were from two seed Wisconsin and number seven seed Connecticut back in November. If they want to reach the Final Four, they will have to make it by Andrew Wiggins and number two seed Kansas (24-9) along with Tyler Ennis and number three seed Syracuse (27-5) in the South Region.
The Pac-12 is well represented in this year’s tournament, with six teams in the tournament including Oregon (23-9), a number seven seed. They will square up against BYU (23-11) a ten seed, in a rematch from December that went into overtime, the ducks winning with a score of 100-96. They will play on Thursday. Arizona (30-4) also claimed a number one seed even though they lost to UCLA (26-8) in the Pac-12 tournament final. Led by Pac-12 player of the year Nick Johnson, the Wildcats will play 16 seed Weber State (19-11) on Friday.
This year if you enter in the Quicken Loans Perfect Bracket Challenge and you happen to pick every single game correctly, you could win a billion dollars. However there is a 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 quintillion chance for that to happen. Sponsored by Warren Buffet and Quicken Loans, even if you don’t have a perfect bracket, the top 20 brackets win a $100,000.
If you are feeling really lucky, enter your bracket to win and you could be laughing with your billion dollar jackpot. Otherwise just fill out a bracket for fun or start a competition with your family. Just be sure to be watching because there will be plenty of upsets this March.
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One of the few seniors to work on The Amplifier all four years of high school, Madeline
Marshall has a passion for journalism that started at a young...
