March Madness Predictions

Kaitlyn Nielsen | Sports Editor

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One of the best times of the year is approaching quickly…March Madness. During this month-long stretch of games, a pivotal part is creating a bracket and watching it slowly fall apart from numerous different upsets each week. Each year, fans can create, share, and bet on as many brackets, predictions, or outcomes as their hearts desire. 

The challenging part is predicting when upsets will occur. Some fans pick simple strategies, like picking the higher-ranked team in every matchup, or picking a random low-ranked team to win over a highly dominant team in their conference. Either way, not a single person has submitted a perfect bracket. Each year, even though fans try their hardest researching all the information and game play in the last season, the chances still stand as 1 in 9.2 quintillion.

Guessing 63 games correctly is, as stated, impossible; people have gotten close. Gregg Nigl was able to predict 49 of the men's games right during the 2019 tournament. He was able to go through the entirety of the matchups until the Elite Eight, where it all fell apart. In 2024, a bracket called “Courtney Court 2” was able to accurately predict 50 of the games, which, for the women, is the closest to perfection they have experienced. 

The hardest part about this entire process is that, after all the research and dedication poured into these predictions, one team can drastically change the trajectory of your bracket. For example, some very large upsets were McNeese, a number 12th-seeded team beating Clemson, which was seeded 5th overall. The heartbreak only continued when the 11th-seeded team, Drake, beat the 6th-seeded team, Missouri. 

Last year's March Madness not only brought shocking game outcomes but also sad realities for many fans. For one, the school in the “basketball capital” did not defend well. After winning in 2023 and in 2024, However in 2025, the UConn Men came up short in their 2nd round game against Florida, losing by only two points. It was a rough year for them, Dan Hurley even taking to the media to release that half of his team was already in the transfer portal. However, after such a disappointing end to a 2025 season, the UConn men have begun to piece their team back together, working their way back to the top. 

Aside from the Men’s Bracket, looking at the Women’s bracket from last year, there was a lack of upsets. It seemed as if all the games were carried out with the higher-ranked team dominating and coming out with the win. However, some notable upsets that have occurred were during the 2021 March Madness tournament. Number three Arizona was able to beat number one UConn; they led the game the entire time, making them the eighth team that was ranked 3rd to make it to the final four. Another upset that happened during the 2021 season was during the Wright State vs. Arkansas game. The game came down to the last 30 seconds, where Angel Baker was able to hit a 3-pointer to seal the win, the ending score being 64-62.

Even though it is exciting to consider how the past years shook out, it’s even more exciting to make some predictions on how this tournament will turn out. Let’s break it down by some current leading teams.

Over on the Men’s side, the current top five is filled with Duke, Arizona, Michigan, Florida, and Houston. The top three teams are tied in their records, sitting with a 29-2. What sets them apart is the points scored, with Duke leading the pack with 1519 points.

This is unsurprising, though. Duke has always been an incredibly sound team. Why? Well, for starters, they have had a great head coach for decades. Mike Krzyzewski was an all-around successful coach who ran the program from 1980-2022. His career was filled with NCAA wins due to the way he coached discipline and player development. Following his retirement, the program was able to land another very successful coach. Jon Scheyer took over in 2022 and has only expanded the team since. One aspect that has set Scheyer apart from the other coaches is his ability to recruit number 1 candidates. For example, their program was able to recruit Cooper Flagg, who, during his freshman year under Duke’s program, was able to win ACC player of the year and ACC rookie of the year. Aside from their recruiting tactics and overall gameplay, this team has consistently dominated in the NCAA world. While there are a lot of teams similar to Duke’s, whose programs are all-around sound and successful, I am going to go way out in my predictions for the men's bracket. 

A take that I am going to make for this upcoming season is that people need to watch Gonzaga. This really shouldn’t be shocking, as they are seeded 12th in the NCAA. There are some consistent factors about this team that make it stand out. From their coaching staff, they are building a consistent program. Mark Few has helped to build multiple Elite Eight and final four appearances, along with a long-standing March Madness tournament appearance. However, what is most persuasive for me is their ability to perform in March. They are currently standing at a 28-3 record, with the majority of their game hitting over 80 points as well as beating other higher-seeded teams like Alabama. This team has done well in years past, and I believe it has a great possibility of performing extremely well this year as well. So, for the purposes of your brackets, I think it would be important to keep them in mind. 

As always, I think another team to watch out for is UConn. Currently, I think they're under a hard spell after losing this weekend to Marquette. However, I think they are hungry for a win after losing before the Sweet 16 last season. This season, they were able to win against some other powerful teams like BYU. While UConn has a great chance to do well this season, I think it’s worthwhile to take a closer look at the team itself. Their schedule has been filled with teams that aren’t ranked. Only playing around eight total ranked teams, the catch, though, is that all these teams besides Arizona have been ranked lower than them. So while UConn is the basketball capital and has produced some amazing players and seasons, I think this season's ending is up in the air and could go either way. 

Overall, if I could call the final two teams as of right now, I think that the University of Houston and Michigan stand a great chance of battling it out in the championship game. 

Now on the women’s side. The top five teams are always the ones to watch out for. Those being: UConn, UCLA, Texas, South Carolina, and LSU. These teams appearing in the top five isn’t rare and for a couple of seasons has been the norm. These teams have repeatedly shown their dominance in women’s Division 1 basketball. Obviously, the team to watch out for is UConn. The women have an impeccable record at the moment, running away with a 33-0 winning streak. Not only this, but on average, they win every game by around 38 points. So they not only dominate, they sweep the competition by a large margin. UConn has always been known to be a basketball-dominant school, its women's team alone producing multiple WNBA players.

I think the women's march madness winner is obvious, and I would make the assertion that the UConn women’s team will win again. However, one team that I am watching out for is TCU. They have had a great season thus far, only losing to teams like West Virginia. Their highest points per game come from Olivia Miles and Marta Suarez, who have a 17 and 16 point average, which is comparable to UConn’s Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd, who, on average, put up 18 and 19 points respectively. 

Overall, March Madness predictions are all based on opinions. No matter how much research and prior knowledge are placed into predictions, unexpected upsets can and will occur. These are just my observations, personal predictions, and opinions for how I think the games will go.