Photo by Jacob Rice Courtesy of Unsplash.
Thursday morning marked the tip off of March Madness, the annual NCAA basketball tournament where 68 teams will face off in 67 single-elimination games.
Across the country, worker productivity drops and the word “bracket” peaks in google searches as we are all sucked into the, for lack of a better word, madness.
In this year’s tournament, four men from our neighborhood will be vying for the biggest win in college basketball.
Here is how to follow along with our hometown heroes’ progress.
We have to start by shouting out Kedrian Johnson, a 5th year Guard for West Virginia University. Johnson graduated from South Oak Cliff High School, and attended Temple College before transferring to West Virginia in 2021.
No. 9 seed West Virginia and No. 8 seed Maryland was the first matchup this morning, and West Virginia suffered a heartbreaking two-point loss for a final score of 65-67. The loss means that Johnson’s time in the tournament has come to an end.
Two more Cliff dwellers will take to the court Thursday.
At 6:25 p.m., the No. 2 seed University of Texas will face the No. 15 seed Colgate. On Texas’s roster is Arterio Morris, a freshman Guard from Kimball High School.
Morris was born in Memphis, Tenn., but moved to Dallas at the age of 13. As a senior at Kimball, he averaged 19.4 points and seven rebounds per game and the team went to the 5A state semifinals.
Texas A&M will tip off at 8:55 p.m. Thursday with Wade Taylor IV sure to be on the court. No. 7 seed A&M will face No. 9 seed Pennsylvania State University.
According to Taylor’s bio, he graduated from Lancaster High School just south of Oak Cliff, but claims Dallas as his hometown. So we will claim him back.
The sophomore Guard has started in 32 out of 34 games this season, and was the SEC player of the week in February.
Finally, Jahmar Young Jr. will join the court with the University of Memphis tigers. No. 8 seed Memphis is playing No. 9 seed FAU on Friday at 8:20 p.m.
It is the senior Forward’s first year as a tiger, after transferring from SMU where he played three seasons and redshirted one.
Young graduated from DeSoto High School, but spent time on the Faith Family Academy team where he averaged 10.5 points and 4.0 rebounds a game his junior season.
