The Most Searched Moments of NCAA® March Madness®

Is March NOT the best month of the year for basketball? Every year college hoops fans go into the NCAA® tournament with the high hope of creating a perfect bracket, and the more realistic aspiration that every game in the tournament will be a nail-biting thrill. This year, even more so than years past, the madness has delivered.

With the final game just hours away, we decided to look back at the related searches from this past month to see what March Madness moments you, our users and basketball fans, were most interested in. Here are the top searches among five categories.

Most Searched Game: Yale vs. Baylor

There were a number of instant classics this March: Texas A&M’s last-minute comeback against Northern Iowa, the Syracuse upset over Virginia, and Arkansas Little Rock’s defeat of Purdue (which we correctly predicted, by the way). However, it was the Yale vs. Baylor game that drew the most searches. Yale had never won a tournament game prior, so perhaps the scrappy style of an Ivy league school outpacing Baylor’s athleticism really drew attention.

Most Searched Coach: Duke's Mike Krzyzewski

He’s a college basketball legend and one of the most recognized coaches in the sport, but the end of Duke’s Sweet Sixteen® run is probably the reason for the spike in searches. Following Duke’s loss to Oregon, Coach K took issue with Dillon Brooks’ deep three-pointer as the clock expired. Coach K originally denied reprimanding Brooks after the game, but the TV cameras showed the opposite. He subsequently released an apology statement.

Most Searched Celebrity Bracket: Barack Obama

No surprises here—we all want to know who the POTUS picks to go all the way come March Madness season. 

Most Searched Surprising Outcome: Middle Tennessee State vs. Michigan State

Michigan’s Spartans had all the tools for a Final Four® run this year and many fans agreed. So when Middle Tennessee State faced off against Michigan State, few anticipated an upset. But Middle Tennessee’s Blue Raiders delivered and the world took notice.

Most Searched Buzzer-Beater: Bronson Koenig three-pointer in second round over Xavier

When Bronson Koenig curled to the right corner, caught the inbound pass, faded away and held up his release as he fell into his team’s bench, the next thing you saw on screen was a perfect swish into the net as time expired for a surprising Wisconsin victory over Xavier. In an instant, this shot was immortalized as one of those March Madness® moments that will play on tournament montages for years to come. Northern Iowa did hit a half-court buzzer beater to defeat Texas in Round 1, but more people took to search to look into the Badgers’ shining moment.

A lot of exciting college hoops moments drove people to search—let’s see who makes history tonight when Villanova takes on North Carolina.

Bing predicts UNC has a 53% chance to defeat Villanova tomorrow night. We can’t wait to see how this one plays out.

Thanks for following along with us this March Madness. Until next year!

- The Bing Team