As of the time I am writing this the NCAA National Championship for the men is set to take place tonight (Monday) in Houston, with a Mountain West team in the title game for the first time since the conference was founded in 1999.

The battle between No. 4-seed UConn, who will be seeking a fifth title in the past 24 years and first since 2014, and the No. 5-seed San Diego State Aztecs is expected to be a strong defensive battle, but that doesn’t even begin to show the madness that this tournament has been.

Starting at the biggest upset of the tournament, for just the second time ever, (and second in five years) a No. 16 seed defeated a No. 1 seed in the tournament.

Purdue boasted the Naismith Player of the Year in Zach Edey, but heart won over height as the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights pulled off the top upset of the tournament over a presumed contender for the title game.

The Ivy League made its prominence known once again, with the Princeton Tigers pulling off two upsets to be the third 15 seed to make the Sweet 16, and second in the past three tournaments.

Overall the madness can be summed up by the fact that this year’s Final Four was composed of three teams that had never made it to the Final Four alongside a sneaky blue blood basketball program of the 21st century seeking a title after going into a rebuild over the past decade.

Despite only one overtime game, this tournament was not devoid of drama, with dozens of games coming down to the wire.

Is this parity good for the tournament?

I feel as if it is.

Intriguing games draw different fan bases from around the country, looking for close contests or which team can make that final push to pull off the upset.

After last year featured four top programs in recent memory, this year’s tournament needed a breath of fresh air after the North Carolina, Duke, Villanova and Kansas battle of last year.

Opening up the door for all of these smaller teams to realize they have a chance too, will make the tournament even more competitive in the years to come, as this year’s tournament was the first in history to ever feature no No. 1 seeds in the Elite Eight.

Hopefully that competitive nature from this year’s tournament will continue to pour into next year’s edition, as the transfer portal continues to wreak havoc on teams all across the country — including the Wyoming Cowboys who need to rebuild essentially the entire roster after a hopeful year to make the tournament was derailed by controversy and injuries.

WOMEN’S TOURNEY

If you did not watch the Women’s NCAA Tournament then you may have missed the next step in the growth of the women’s game.

Coming down to the wire the Final Four featured three of the top players in the country including the Naismith Player of the Year Caitlin Clark.

This year’s tournament had its fair share of upsets too, with UConn not making it to the Elite Eight for the first time in 16 years — also snapping a streak of 14 straight Final Four appearances.

It may not seem like there was as much parity in the women’s bracket, but only two No. 1 seeds making the Final Four (neither made the championship) and UConn not making it past the Sweet 16 shows the women’s game is heading on a strong path of growth as well.

If you did not watch the Final Four on Friday or the championship on Sunday then you need to learn the names Aliyah Boston, Angel Reese and Clark.

Boston has been the most dominant force in women’s college basketball for a couple of years at South Carolina and now heads into the WNBA draft, while Reese burst onto the scene this year for LSU and broke the record for most double-doubles in a single season with 34.

Clark is seeking to change the game for an Iowa program that had never been to the title game, putting up back-to-back 41 point games in the Elite Eight and Final Four including a triple-double in the first game.

Despite a thrilling championship game resulting in LSU winning its first title ever 102-85 under coach Kim Mulkey who returned home to Louisiana and delivered on a title in just two years — the officiating was horrible in that contest, taking away from a potentially thrilling finish.

Three of Iowa’s starters had four fouls in the third quarter, including Clark and second leading scorer Monika Czinano, who was not playing for several key minutes in the game.

LSU also had trouble early, and its two leading scorers, Reese and Alexis Morris, did not play almost the entirety of the second quarter.

The Tigers bench stepped up more than the Hawkeyes, but overall that Final Four definitely showed the women’s game is continuing to move in the right direction after years of predictability.