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The NCAA Championship game should be tipping off tonight, and I am 100% still not over it. I initially started doing this simulated tournament because literally every sporting even was cancelled because of COVID-19, and I didn’t know what do with my time. But now that I see a potential championship game that we won’t get to see, I think I’m just more upset than before. Of course, before we get to the championship game, we have to see the Final Four.
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Dayton defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes in a low scoring affair to advance to their second championship game in school history. The Flyers once again used a balanced scoring attack with six players scoring 5 or more points—which is impressive considering they only had 52. Iowa’s Luka Garza finished the game with 17 points and 17 rebounds, but didn’t get enough help from his teammates to come away with the victory.
Gonzaga once again won their game in blowout fashion. Through the first 5 rounds, the Bulldogs have a total scoring margin of +116, which gives them an average margin of victory of 23.2 points per game. That is domination. The Zags were once again led by Ryan Woolridge, who finished with 14 points and 6 assists, and Killian Tillie, who added 18 points and 4 rebounds in the win. Jonah Mathews led the Trojans with 15 points and 2 assists, but USC really never had a chance in this one.
After five rounds of the NCAA Tournament, it all comes down to a battle between two 1 seeds—the Dayton Flyers and the Gonzaga Bulldogs—to determine who will be crowned the 2020 NCAA Simulated Tournament Champion. It means absolutely nothing, so I know both teams are super excited.
That’s it for the Final Four of the 2020 NCAA Tournament. You can check your score here if you made a bracket. It appears we are going to have a tie for first place between the aptly named “Can we fire him already?” and “MarchSadness,” as both have 700 points and Dayton winning it all. My bracket, on the other hand, will once again be finishing towards the bottom of the pack. Some things never change.