ANTHONY GETTINO
Sports Editor
Just like every other sport the past year, college basketball has been completely different from the norm.
For most games, the fanbase, energy and home court advantage have all but disappeared and the normal powerhouses have fallen from grace.
If there was ever a year for teams like Kentucky and Duke to miss the field of 68 NCAA March Madness Tournament, it would be in a year as whacky as this one.
Unlike almost all regular season games, fans are beginning to be allowed to attend at limited capacity for conference championships and the March Madness tournament.
Indianapolis is hosting the entire field from start to finish for the first time this year and will allow fans to be at 25 percent capacity for the entire tournament.
How large the tournament will be is an entirely different question that still hasn’t been fully decided on as of now.
Currently, the field is set to be the usual 68 total teams, with two play-in games to trim down to our starting field of 64.
However, there are contingency plans set to have fields of 48, 32 and 16 if COVID begins to spike again, or multiple programs that have already qualified for the event have to pause for COVID spikes at their institutions.
It seems like this year has a “big three” for contenders in undefeated Gonzaga, one loss Baylor and two loss Michigan, but there are a plethora of other teams that could make a run for the title including Illinois, Ohio State and Iowa.
The Big10 has been the talk of the season with four teams within the top 10 in the nation. The Big12 has two of their own teams in the top 10 as well as a score of teams in the top 25.
Without some of the usual blue bloods at the top of brackets, it almost seems like there isn’t a team to root against like usual.
At least we can still root for the underdogs.