Who would’ve thought that Virginia (1) would be knocked out in the first round? The victor gets either No. 7 Nevada or No. 11 Loyola-Chicago.
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There are only seven of the top 16 seeds still alive for the regional rounds. Led by junior guard Clayton Custer and senior guard Donte Ingram, this is a team where all five starters average double-digit scoring numbers, making any one of them a threat any game.
While the Final Four could look something like this – Kentucky versus Gonzaga and Villanova versus Duke – once again there are no guarantees. Honestly, we don’t care where we play. And Arizona came into the Tourney playing great basketball.
On the right side of your bracket, we have the Midwest and East.
No. 7 seed Texas A&M is another team added to the large number of teams who pulled off an upset over the weekend by defeating No. 2 seed North Carolina 86-65 in a blowout win.
Consider this one an ACC Invitational. As the bracket enters the Sweet 16 round next week there as as many No. 11 seeds as there are No. 1 seeds still competing, and No. 3 seeded MI is the highest-seeded team still standing on one half of the entire bracket. Can they keep Kansas from feasting at the 3-point arc in Omaha on Friday night?
But, both must first survive their treacherous Round 3 match-ups Thursday and Friday, before moving along the road to the Final-Four.
MI guard Jordan Poole (2) is chased by teammates after making a 3-point basket at the buzzer to lift the Wolverines into the Sweet 16 of this year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
It began with Syracuse, a team that arguably shouldn’t have made the tournament, taking down third-seeded Michigan State 55-53.
Duke and Syracuse met in Cameron Indoor Stadium on February 24, with the Blue Devils holding the Orange to 32 percent shooting in a 60-44 win.
J.P. Macura, who fouled out on a late charge, scored 17 points while Kerem Kanter put in 15 and Paul Scruggs finished with 11.
All that money helps explain why the American Athletic Conference lured tournament-regular Wichita State from the MVC a year ago, despite the Shockers not having a football team, and why the Mountain West is trying to strike a similar deal to pull Gonzaga out of the West Coast Conference (WCC).
MI will take on seventh-seeded Texas A&M Thursday in Los Angeles.
The South champion faces the West champion in the Alamodome, and my pre-tournament West pick was No. 4 Gonzaga. You could practically hear casual fans flipping to the game and asking themselves the same question. “It’s March Madness and you never know what’s going to happen”.
“Even though we lost today, I’m so proud of my team that we gave our best”, said UMBC student Tola Abu.
But March Madness wasn’t done. MI may get obliterated in the post by Texas A&M in the Sweet 16, just like North Carolina, and they’re not deadly from deep like most Jon Beilein teams. If this tournament’s trajectory is anything to go by, there are probably some more surprises in store. Like Loyola will have on Thursday, the Patriots faced a seventh-seed in the Sweet 16 in Wichita State and beat them by eight points.
Contender: Nevada is the comeback king of these NCAAs, storming back from 14 down to drop Texas in overtime and then pulling off an even larger (22 down) upset comeback over Final Four contender Cincinnati on Sunday.
In fact, the only person who doesn’t seem to like Sister Jean is Knoxville, Tenn., sports radio jock Cody McClure, who showed just oodles of class after Loyola Chicago beat Tennessee in the second round.
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Kansas State’s Xavier Sneed celebrates in the waning minutes of the victory over Maryland-Baltimore County.
