Steve Kornacki's guide to the NCAA Tournament: March Madness predictions, upsets, sleeper picks and more
Steve Kornacki gives his Cinderella teams, upset picks and Final Four selections as the NCAA Tournament gets underway.
I was in elementary school when my dad took me to the Providence Civic Center for the first round of the 1989 NCAA Tournament. We watched the afternoon games, got dinner, and then he asked me if I wanted to go back for some of the night session. There were two games on tap, but only the very late one seemed like it would be any good. The earlier matchup was between a No. 1-seeded team and some hopeless No. 16 seed. It would be a boring blowout.
Tough luck, my dad told me, there was no way we were staying out until midnight. We could catch the first game and then go home or just leave right now. I remember it being a tough choice, but for whatever reason we stayed — and then got to witness a game that I am still telling people about almost four decades later, one that oh-so-nearly was (and should have been) among the most monumental upsets in sports history.
That’s when I came down with a full-blown case of March Madness, and it hasn’t let up since. I’m just one of the many fans who consider the next two days the absolute best two days on the annual sports calendar and the entire three-week tournament the single best of any sporting event. I claim no expertise (my national championship pick last year fell a little short), just undiminished enthusiasm and a weakness for the underdog.
With that in mind, here are just a few of the teams and storylines on my mind as the 2025 edition of the NCAA Tournament gets underway.
This is a risky pick, since the No. 6-seeded Cougars face a trendy upset pick, VCU, in the first round. The game will be a clash of styles. Offensive-minded BYU scores more than 80 points a game, averages nearly 11 made 3-pointers and boasts one of the highest effective field goal percentages in the country. VCU’s stifling defense, meanwhile, limits opponents to just 61.6 points per game and 37.8% shooting from the field. Something will have to give here and it would be no shocker if the Rams (whose coach, Ryan Odom, led No. 16 seed UMBC to an upset for the ages in the 2018 tournament) take down the Cougars.
Rating: 5