Just in case you have not been paying attention, the Sweet Sixteen is upon us. What is the Sweet Sixteen? I am not referring to a young person’s birthday. I am referring to the 16 teams that are left in the men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament. As usual, there have been plenty of upsets which leaves a lot of “broken” brackets. I wanted to take a look at some of the upsets that have occurred as well as the surprises early on in the tournament. Also, we can not overlook the story lines that have developed during the tournament.
Let’s take a look at the upsets that have occurred in the first two rounds. The region with the most upsets is the south region. For the first time in history a #1 seed lost to #16 seed. UMBC knocked off Virginia in that shocker. Another favorite for the region was Arizona and they lost in the first round. The #2 seed Cincinnati Bearcats lost in the second round to Nevada after being up by 22 in the second half. The #3 seed Tennessee Volunteers lost in the second round to the Loyola Ramblers. So far they are one of the tournament darlings. Nevada, Loyola, Kansas St., and Kentucky are the remaining teams in the south region. The west region did not have any significant upsets in the first round, but the second round brought the #1 seed Xavier and the #2 seed North Carolina Tar Heels being beaten. The remaining teams are Florida St., Gonzaga, Michigan, and Texas A&M.
The east region has held true to form for the most part. There was one major upset with Marshall knocking off the #4 seed Wichita St. Shockers. Villanova, Purdue, West Virginia, and Texas Tech remain in the region. The midwest region has had a couple of upsets and both have come at the hands of Syracuse. They have beaten TCU and Michigan State to get to this point. Their next matchup will be against the mighty Duke Blue Devils. The other match-up in the region will be Kansas vs. Clemson.
When you have this many games in such a short time you tend to get some type of “madness”. You also get to see teams and hear stories that you may not have heard during the regular season. People seem to love the underdog, so this year the tourney darlings are the Loyola Ramblers. Their biggest star is not even a player, it is Sister Jean. It is a pretty nice story line to follow. I especially love that she picked Loyola to get to the Sweet Sixteen. How about the story of Isaac Haas? He plays for Purdue, a legitimate contender until he broke his elbow in the first round. Purdue announced he would be done for the season. Purdue happens to be an engineering school, so some grad students have been trying to get a brace designed for his elbow that the NCAA will approve. It looks like they have, but I can’t imagine playing with a fractured elbow. We will soon find out. Here is another great article that covers the meaning of a win for each team left. Clearly, they all want to win, but it means something different for each team.
A total of 48 games have been played. Not all 48 have been fun games to watch, buzzer beaters, or upsets. What you do have is a great tournament that can be won by a team that is not necessarily the best. I would think fans of Virginia felt they were the best team coming into the tourney and they were gone in the first round. If you have one bad game or one match-up that does not play into your favor you can be sent packing. One thing that the tournament does not lack is drama and suspense. I personally love the tourney and I watch as much as I can even if my favorite team gets eliminated.
—Victor Mandalawi