The Goldbergs Take on March Madness

By Michal Goldberg ‘22 and Hadas Goldberg ‘22

As March approaches, college basketball fans are making predictions about how this year's tournament will unfold. The madness begins with the conference tournaments. The Atlantic Coast Conference is one of the best, with more tournament championships than any other conference. 
Junior and basketball fanatic Michal Goldberg predicts that the University of Virginia will win the conference tournament. 

With math skills that outshine his sports expertise, sophomore mathlete Josh Goldberg, unrelated to Michal Goldberg, makes this bold prediction, “Florida State can easily overtake Virginia,” Josh said with no logic to support the claim. 
Michal’s twin Hadas Goldberg still has faith that the Duke Blue Devils will win despite the lackluster start to their season.
In a surprising Big 12 prediction, Josh is “tempted to pick the Iowa state Cyclone” although they have yet to win a conference game this season. 
In the end, all three Goldbergs concluded that the probable winner is the Baylor Bears. However, Michal is worried that the team’s winning streak will “get to their heads” resulting in an uncharacteristic loss. 
    After the conference championships, the NCAA tournament begins. The four best teams, according to the selection committee, are selected as one seeds. 
Hadas predicts that Gonzaga will get a one seed, but adds they are “undeserving and should receive a four seed.” She believes the other one seeds will be Michigan, Baylor and Houston. 
Michal’s predictions are similar to Hadas’, however, she believes that Virginia will receive the one seed over Houston. 
Josh picks Gonzaga, Huston, Baylor and Alabama as his predictions. He selects the Alabama Crimson Tide because they “have more wins than losses.” Josh further predicts that the Final Four teams left in the tournament will be Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia and Texas Tech. He made this prediction because “Virginia is a first-place kind of state.” 
On the contrary, Hadas is confident that Michigan, Illinois, Baylor and Duke will be in the Final Four. She believes “Duke is the Cinderella coming to save 2021.” 
Michal believes that Houston, Alabama, Ohio State and Michigan will be the final four. She “does not believe in undefeated teams” and therefore will not place Baylor or Gonzaga in the Final Four. 
Predicting the winner is difficult, but Josh is confident in his pick of Virginia. “They don’t have any extra words in their name,” Josh said, impressed by their dedication to the state of Virginia. 
Michal believes that Michigan will win the tournament, whereas Hadas, an over-dedicated fan, has her heart set on Duke winning, blinded to the harsh reality of Duke’s failures in the past season. In addition, Hadas has “full trust in Mike Krzyzewski’s abilities.”
Every year certain players dominate the court and rise to the challenge of the madness. The Goldbergs provided their top picks for this category. 
Michal believes that Jared Butler will be the secret to Baylor’s success in the tournament because he averages more than 15 points per game. 
Hadas is excited to watch Ayo Dosunmu for Illinois and Marcus Carr of Minnesota. However, she is most excited to watch DJ Steward “lead Duke to a National Championship.” Josh is excited to see his projected number one NBA draft pick Luka Garza who he claims is “overrated.”
All three Goldbergs are excited to witness the events of this year’s March Madness and are thrilled to assess the accuracy of their predictions as the tournament unfolds.