Wild weekend rolls March Madness into Sweet 16

After being canceled in 2020 and played in a bubble in 2021, the NCAA tournament is back in its element.

The men played their first two rounds this weekend in front of packed crowds in arenas across the country to set their Sweet 16. The women, meanwhile have one more day of play on Monday before finalizing theirs. Both fields saw blue bloods and double-digit seeds alike advance, leaving plenty of compelling storylines heading into the second weekend of play.

Can Saint Peter’s keep dancing?

This is becoming a trend. The NCAA men’s tournament produced exactly zero No. 15 seeds in the Sweet 16 from the expansion of the field in 1985 through 2013. Since then, we’ve seen three — and now, two straight.

“Dunk City” Florida Gulf Coast broke the mold in 2013. Oral Roberts repeated the feat in 2021. On Saturday, the Saint Peter’s Peacocks became the third member of the club, riding defeats of No. 2 seed Kentucky and No. 7 Murray State into the tournament’s second weekend.

Who exactly is St. Peter’s, you ask? In short, it’s a small Jesuit school from New Jersey with an undergraduate enrollment roughly 1/15th of Kentucky’s. It’s coached by a former McDonald’s All-American Game MVP in Shaheen Holloway. And its fans like to get down. Because, why wouldn’t they?

So what are the Peacocks’ chances of continuing to advance? Judging by history, not great. Florida Gulf Coast lost in the 2013 Sweet 16 to No. 3 seed Florida, 62-50. Oral Roberts, meanwhile, put up a fight against No. 3 Arkansas in a 72-70 Sweet 16 loss last year.

Story continues

Is 2022 the year of the No. 15 seed invasion of the Elite Eight? If so, St. Peter’s will have to beat No. 3 seed Purdue to get there. The Boilermakers opened as 12.5-point favorites Sunday night, making the Peacocks the biggest underdog of the Sweet 16.

New record for double-digit seeds

While St. Peter’s is the most prominent Cinderella, it’s far from alone. Six double-digit seeds have advanced to the Sweet 16 between the men’s and women’s tournaments, the first time that has happened, according to Stats Perform.

The chaos on the women’s side is historic on its own. No. 10 South Dakota took out No. 2 Baylor while No. 10 Creighton knocked out No. 2 Iowa on Sunday, taking down a pair of top contenders and one of the tournament’s biggest stars in Hawkeye Caitlin Clark. They’re now the fourth and fifth No. 10 seeds to ever advance to the women’s Sweet 16. It’s the first time two have done so in the same year.

Meanwhile three more women’s double-digit seeds — No. 11 Villanova, No. 12 Belmont and No. 11 Princeton — remain alive Monday to join the Cinderella ball.

ACC cruises, SEC crashes

The ACC has roared into the men’s Sweet 16. After a much-maligned regular season that saw five teams make the NCAA field — a league low since it expanded in 2014 — the ACC has punched three tickets to the tournament’s second weekend thanks to a 7-2 effort in the opening rounds.

No. 10 Miami joined North Carolina and Duke in the tournament’s second weekend thanks to an upset of No. 2 Auburn late Sunday. After the game, Miami head coach Jim Larranaga had a message for prominent former Tiger Charles Barkley, who’d promised on CBS earlier Sunday to take his shirt off on TV if Auburn won.

Larranaga spoke for America after Miami’s win.

“No one wants to see that, Chuck.”

As for Duke, head coach Mike Krzyzewski’s retirement tour lives on to play another game after a win over Michigan State and longtime rival Tom Izzo on Sunday. Next up, what promises to be a grind of a game against a Texas Tech team that leads the nation in adjusted defensive efficiency. Vegas likes Coach K’s career to come to an end Thursday by 1.5 points. Stay tuned.

North Carolina, meanwhile, pulled off one of the wildest wins of the tournament in a knockout of No. 1 seed Baylor on Saturday. The Tar Heels took a 25-point lead only to suffer a meltdown alongside the officials in the last 10 minutes of regulation. They somehow regained their composure to win in overtime and set up a Thursday matchup against fellow blue blood UCLA, which opened as a 2.5-point favorite.

And in case you’re wondering, the tournament’s two wins each from both teams to a Duke-UNC Final Four matchup in Coach K’s last season. That’s a bridge to be crossed if and when they get there.

Where the ACC cruised, the SEC flopped. See Miami’s win over Auburn. Also see Kentucky, LSU, Alabama and Tennessee, who all joined Auburn in falling upset to double-digit seeds this weekend.

After the SEC placed six teams into the field, only No. 4 seed Arkansas advances to the Sweet 16, where it will face No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga. The Zags opened as 8.5-point favorites.

South Carolina is cruising

Where the men’s field remains relatively wide open, the women’s field appears less so. South Carolina is very much living up to its billing as the women’s No. 1 overall seed. The Gamecocks beat No. 16 Howard, 79-21 to open tournament play, but it’s the first-half margin that really stood out.

South Carolina led, 44-4 at the half, holding Howard to the fewest halftime points in NCAA tournament history. The Gamecocks put up another dominant defensive showing Sunday in a 49-33 win over No. 8 seed Miami. Up next, the winner of Monday’s game between No. 4 Arizona and No. 5 North Carolina.

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