"March Madness, here we come!"
After the game, the headline on UConn media outlets featured a photo of Walker kissing the court.
UConn fans were ecstatic. After winning the conference championship, they had confidence like never before.
A core lineup of Walker, Lamb, Tang Tian, and O'Riaqi, supplemented by role players like Napier, Smith, Orland, Forsyth, and Art Majok.
A roster like that would definitely achieve something in the tournament.
Just as crazed as UConn's fans were the fans of the other 31 schools. Thirty-two Championship Teams had already secured spots in the tournament.
Among them were powerhouse schools like North Carolina, Duke, and Kentucky, as well as schools like Penn State Berks and Richmond, making the tournament for the first time.
A land of miracles and upsets, a battlefield of passion and thrills—March Madness was quietly drawing near.
Not long after the conference championships ended, the NCAA selection committee announced the final results of Selection Sunday through a television broadcast on March 11.
After more than three months of evaluation by the selection committee, 36 colleges became the tournament's at-large teams.
In the Big East Conference, Georgetown University, which had reached the finals, the blue-collar powerhouse Louisville University, the upset-making Marquette University, and the unexpectedly selected Providence College—four schools in total—made the final tournament.
Compared to the eight schools selected each year in previous years, having only five schools selected this year was quite a drop.
With that, the tournament's 68 teams were finalized.
The 68 teams would be divided into four regions: East, West, Southeast, and Southwest, with 17 teams in each region.
The NCAA organizing committee would assign regions based on team strength, geography, and various other factors.
At the same time, the committee would rank the teams by strength and designate them as Seed Teams.
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