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Every year, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament is one of my favorite events to watch.

I love seeing upsets and watching players I fall in love with over the course of three weeks. Some players earn their spot of immortality when they hit a buzzer beater that lifts their team to a win over an underdog.

Recently, however, I have had personal rooting interests. I always love to see UAB make the NCAA Tournament. That’s the school I attended in college. I always remember watching them beat Kentucky, who was the overall No. 1 seed in 2004, with players who are around my age.

That was a special group, and I love to see UAB get back in when they can. I know it’s really hard with the conference they are in, but they will get back in soon.

I have also always been an Auburn fan. It’s mostly been about football, but I always dreamed of a time when Auburn could get to a Final Four and play for a national championship.

That was just a pipe dream for most of my life until around eight years ago. That’s when Bruce Pearl’s squad that year outlived the expectations of a team left for dead. They not only made the tournament, but they won the SEC for the first time.

The next year was a struggle, but Auburn got hot winning the SEC Tournament and then went on to make the Final Four by beating Kentucky as an underdog in the Elite Eight that year.

Auburn struggled to get back there, but this year, they finally had the team fall into place. This wasn’t a surprise, but they finally back to the Final Four as the overall top seed in the Big Dance.

It’s not as easy as you’d think it would be. Even rival Alabama fell in the Sweet 16 with a team that I thought had no chance of losing before the Final Four.

But that’s why we love the tournament. We love the upsets and seeing the best teams get knocked out.

If you are like that, I’d bet you hated this year’s tournament. This was the fewest upsets I think we’ve ever had. In the Elite Eight, you only had one team lower than a 2-seed, and that was Texas Tech, arguably the strongest 3-seed in the tournament.

Lots of people are worried we won’t see upsets again. I think they’re overreacting, but this year, I do have to admit the tournament committee got the seeding right. In the past, I saw overall top seeds getting terrible draws that led to early upsets. Auburn still had a tough draw, but they proved that they were no fluke.

But in the Final Four, they faced the ultimate thorn in their side, the Florida Gators. It looked good for Auburn early getting a good halftime lead. However, Florida took control in the second half thanks to their most outstanding player, Walter Clayton Jr.

As bad as it felt to lose the game, it took an all-time great tournament performance by Clayton to knock Auburn out. They didn’t play their best, but even still, it took Clayton’s back-to-back 30-point games to end the dream for Auburn.

And that’s again what we love about sports. We love to see an athlete stepping up, and I doubt this is the last time Clayton does this. I have a feeling we will be watching him for many years in the NBA.

This was a year for the ages in the SEC and the state of Alabama. Let’s hope the trend continues.

Brent Maze is the publisher of The Selma Times-Journal. He can be reached at brent.maze@selmatimesjournal.com