Your March Madness Dictionary

Your+March+Madness+Dictionary

 

March Madness is here and so is its lingo. What’s a cinderella team? Who is busting the bracket? Why is everyone dancing? Here is your guide March Madness’s most used slang! This isn’t a one-and-done article, check out our March Madness coverage in the Sports section!

 

The Dance: a whimsical synonym for the NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball National Championship Tournament (yes, that is the tournament’s full name). If a team is “going dancing” or going to “the dance,” they have scored an invitation to the Tournament.

Please use in a sentence: “ WE’RE GOING DANCING!”

 

Seed: Each team is given a number (1-16) based on a ranking within their region. There are four regions in the tournament each containing teams ranked from 1-16, 1 being the best and 16 being the…least talented.

Please use in a sentence: “ Did you see that 16 seed beat the 1st seed!!”

 

On the Bubble: Teams that are the last to be considered for an invitation to the tournament. They could be invited but, they may not be. It’s all up to the NCAA board of directors, therefore, they are on the bubble.

Please use in a sentence: “ Oof, Syracuse is on the bubble after their loss against Duke.”

 

Cinderella Teams: A team that was not slated to perform well in the tournament, but they end up demolishing the other teams. Similar to Cinderella taking advantage of being at the ball, these teams are taking advantage of being at the dance.

Please use in a sentence: “ Did you see Buffalo beat Arizona? What a true Cinderella team.”

 

Bracket Buster: When a low seeded team beats a high seeded team. Usually when everyone and their mom picked the “good” team to win but the other team wins and their brackets explode.

Please use in a sentence: “Oh no! The Miami lost bracket busted me!”

 

Cutting Down the Net: The winner of the Tournament gets to cut down the net after their championship winning game. Its commonly asked by analyst, “who will be cutting down the net this year?” as to say who will win this year.

Please use in a sentence: “ I think we’ll see Virginia cut down the net this year!”

 

Bracketology: The study of the March Madness bracket, it usually never turns out well but it’s worth a shot.

Please use in a sentence: “I’m using bracketology this year to make my bracket, dude.”