“I hear people talk about game pressure,” Miller said, “the higher up the ladder you get into the NCAA Tournament.”

For most basketball teams, the NCAA tournament is life or death.  Some teams, such as North Carolina, Duke and UCLA almost always have bids into the tournament.  For other teams, for the most part, smaller less-known schools, the chance of getting a spot to play in the tournament is slim.  Once in the tournament, the pressure is high and intense.  The top teams want to keep their reputations and spots in the tournament to try and win a championship, while the higher seeds want to prove themselves that they can win even though they are from an underdog school. 

The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers felt as though the game was over, as they were up by fifteen points with eight minutes to go in the second half.  Drake, whom took their game to the next level under the pressure, went on a rally and tied the game up, with thirty seconds to go.  The next play; a player from Drake gets fouled, for two shots.  Sweat was dripping down as he nervously made his way to the foul line.  The pressure of these two shots was immense.  Despite his nervs, he made both the fould shots.  Coming down the court with five seconds to go, Ty Rogers from Western Kentucky hit a three-pointer from several feet beyond NBA range with two seconds left to clinch a win for the underdog Hilltoppers. 

Although student-athletes, such as myself in basketball, can relate to these high pressure situations, many students will never get a chance to experience that intensity.  However, they may experience another type of pressure recently: waiting for college acceptance letters.  The pressure to get into a good school is similar to that of the basketball game, if you do not work hard, you fail.  Students tend to get nervous and discouraged when they see their other peers get college acceptance letters.  This pressures them to get into a good college, and if they do get the fatal rejection letter, the pain of the disappointment is deep.  The real world puts so much pressure on a student to get into a good college because if you do not, the level of life will be lesser than if you do. 

Students work really hard to try and meet the standard of schools.  They do all the homework, study for tests and even wake up early to get extra-help to try and rise above the pressure and get into a well reputed college.  However, most of the college acceptance is based on one test- the SATs.  The pressure going into that one test can determine the level of academics in college you attend.  I think this is very unfair, as research states that these tests are based on genetics, no matter how hard you study and prepare for the test, you are limited by your gene pool.  Statistics show that generally how your parents did on the SATs or in school is basically how you are going to do.  In my opinion, this makes the pressure of applying to college even greater, as you can not control the outcome of what happens. 

Whether the pressure is making the game winning shot, or just waiting to here from your favorite college, everyone can relate to pressure and have to learn how to cope with it.