By Avry Jones
This year’s NCAA national championship tournaments featured 68 men’s and 65 women’s teams, showcasing the best of college basketball.
While both tournaments highlight incredible talent, the men’s tournament often garners more attention due to its extended history. However, the women’s tournament has grown in popularity, attracting a larger audience over recent years.
Remarkably, 27 schools have their men’s and women’s teams competing in this year’s tournament. However, only Duke’s Men’s and Women’s teams made it to the Elite Eight.
The showcase of men’s and women’s collegiate sports over the past few years has gained immense attention, whether for basketball, soccer, or hockey. However, basketball seems to be a sport that shows their schools and fans great support.
Duke University has a rich basketball history with its men’s team. Since 2010, the women’s basketball team has made 14 NCAA tournament appearances, along with the men’s teams, 15 appearances and a national championship win in 2015.
This year, Duke’s men’s and women’s teams showcased incredible play to carry both teams into the Elite Eight. This dual showcase of men’s and women’s play is a growing trend that recently fulfilled the best of a school’s all-around attention and care for its collegiate student-athletes.
Look for more schools to have their men’s and women’s teams appear in national tournaments like baseball, softball, soccer, and hockey.
At the time of this writing, Duke’s men’s team reached the Final Four by defeating Alabama 85-65.
However, the defending national champions from South Carolina defeated a strong Duke women’s team, 54-50.
Overall, men’s and women’s sports, especially at the college level, are receiving considerable attention due to the players’ passion and the schools’ interest.
Generally, the more prominent Division 1-A schools receive a lot of notoriety. Still, when college programs give the right amount of concentration across the board, fans see incredible events occur.
Avry Jones is a contributor to The MMM Journal.
She can be reached at: avryjones@comcast.net
X: @LadyAvry
Instagram: @LadyAvry
