Total Madness

Eric Sedlacek

In this year’s NCAA tournament, there have already been three buzzer beaters, which ties the record for most in a tournament—and that was just in the opening weekend.

In the round of 64, eleven teams that were the lower seeded team won their game. However, three of those eleven were nine seeds over eight seeds, which are coin-flip games.

The biggest upset of the tournament was fifteen seeded Middle Tennessee taking down two seeded Michigan State (which in ESPN’s tournament challenge they were picked second most to win the title behind Kansas) with a final score of 90-81. The second biggest upset was fourteen seeded Stephen F. Austin taking down two seeded West Virginia, who was second in the Big 12 in regular season and in the conference tournament, with a final of 70-56.

As those eleven teams made it to the round of 32 only three of those teams made it to the Sweet Sixteen (Gonzaga, Indiana, and Wisconsin). There should be a fourth team on that list: eleven seeded Northern Iowa, who was up 12 points with 33 seconds left in their game. However, three seeded Texas A&M went on a 14-2 run with four forced turnovers in the final 33 seconds to send the game to overtime. Texas A&M eventually won this match in a second overtime period.

On the same night of the Texas A&M and Northern Iowa game, two seeded Xavier lost on a buzzer beater by seventh-seeded Wisconsin’s Bronson Koenig.

However, in the Sweet Sixteen games, there were no upsets. All eight of the higher seeded teams won their game. Also, six of the eight games were decided by at least thirteen points.

The Elite Eight was a whole different situation. There is only one number one seeded team left in the Final Four. Four of the Elite Eight teams are from the ACC and all four are on the same side of the bracket, meaning two ACC teams will play in the Final Four. Number two Villanova beat overall number one seeded Kansas. Two seeded Oklahoma beat one seeded Oregon. The big shocker is ten seeded Syracuse taking down one seeded Virginia to advance to the Final Four. Then, one seeded North Carolina took care of business against sixth seeded Notre Dame to advance to their nineteenth Final Four, which is the most of all time.

The Final Four is set with the pair of two seeds, Villanova and Oklahoma, facing off. The other side is one seed North Carolina playing ten seeded Syracuse. Syracuse is the first ten seed to make the Final Four and ties the record for most losses by a team to make the Final Four with thirteen.

The Final Four games will be played Saturday night. With the National Championship game being played on Monday night.