Big Winners and Big Losers in the First Weekend of NCAA Tournament

We’ve reached the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and the first weekend of competition was filled with jaw dropping surprises. Here’s a look at some of the winners and losers in the first two rounds.

Winner: Maryland—Baltimore County became the 1st 16 seed to beat a number one seed, knocking off Virgina. We talked about that here. The Retrievers took Kansas State nearly down to the wire in the first ever matchup of a #16 and #9 before losing 50-43. UMBC made history and gained respect for both performances, and you can bet it gives the program a big boost at recruiting time.

Loser: Virginia, obviously. The Cavaliers were the #1 seed in the entire tournament, and were #1 in the polls going in, but looked clueless in the second half against the Retrievers.

Winners: Number 11 seeds. Two of them have advanced to the Sweet Sixteen—Loyola of Chicago in the South and Syracuse in the Midwest. It’s Loyola’s first Sweet Sixteen since 1985. Syracuse always seems to play well in the NCAAs, so this wasn’t as much of a surprise, but they did have to play in the First Four, knocking off Arizona St. just to reach the Round of 64. Speaking of Arizona State……

Losers: The Pacific 12. The Conference landed just three teams in the tournament, two of which had to play in the First Four, and failed to win a game. UCLA, which has won 11 National Championships and has been in 18 Final Fours, lost to St. Bonaventure 65-58. It was the Bonnies’ first NCAA tournament win since 1970, when they made it to their only Final Four. (The 1970 Champion was UCLA, though the two did not play each other). Arizona State lost to Syracuse in the other First Four, and Arizona, the #4 seed in the south, lost to #13 Buffalo.

Winners: Teams from Kansas. #9 Kansas State advances in the South and #1 Kansas advances in the Midwest. Wichita State did spoil the party a little bit by losing to Marshall, but still not bad.

Winners: The ACC. The conference has four teams (Clemson, Syracuse, Duke, and Florida State ) remaining.

Losers: The ACC. Five teams are out. Virginia, Virginia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, and North Carolina State lost, all in the first round except for North Carolina, which lost in the second round.

Losers: Teams from Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Bearcats, #2 in the South, blew a 22 point lead against #7 Nevada and lost 75-73. Xavier, the #1 seed in the West, lost to #8 Florida State 75-70. The Seminoles scored the final seven points of the game to secure the victory, and avenge last year’s tournament loss to the Musketeers.

Winner: Kentucky. The Wildcats, at #4, are the highest seed remaining in the South, with Virginia, Cincinnati, and #3 Tennessee all out. They play Kansas State next, and if they win, will play the winner of the Loyola—Nevada game. Seems favorable, but with the way things are going, who knows?