Sunday marked the conclusion of the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament. While the Cinderella teams generally make the tournament interesting, it looks like the underdogs took an early tumble this season as the lowest seed remaining is the 11-seeded Texas Longhorns. The field looks extremely competitive this season as many of the teams projected to reach the Sweet 16 are in—and as the tournament goes on, both the intensity and stakes will reach an all-time high.
Most of the 1-seeds survived the early rounds as Duke, Arizona, and Michigan prevailed. Duke survived an early scare during their first-round encounter with 16-seeded Siena who led the Blue Devils 43-32 at halftime. The Blue Devils stormed their way through to achieve a not so impressive comeback victory against a Siena team that many believed Duke would absolutely crush. Arizona and Michigan won both of their matchups quite convincingly. Florida crashed out in the second round against an unrelenting ninth-seeded Iowa who put up an incredible fight against the defending champions. A late three-point shot gave the Hawkeyes a 73-72 lead over the Gators with 3.9 seconds remaining, and led them to their first Sweet 16 appearance since 1999.
All of the 2-seeds managed to reach the Sweet 16 in dominating fashion. Houston and Iowa State scored multiple double digit victories against their opponents. Purdue struggled a bit against a sneaky Miami before pulling away in the second half. UConn survived a tough test against a formidable Furman team who kept the game fairly close throughout the entire contest.
While there weren’t too many upsets in this year’s tournament, a few underdogs managed to pull off a victory in the first round. 11-seeded VCU scored a monumental victory over North Carolina in overtime, winning 82-78. The biggest upset of the tournament was 12-seeded High Point stunning Wisconsin 83-82. The Panthers used their momentum to rattle 4-seeded Arkansas in the second round before falling short 94-88, leaving Texas as the lowest seed to remain in the tournament.
And the best game of the tournament had to be the super tight clash between Kentucky and Santa Clara in which Kentucky came out on top with an 89-84 final score. The final 10 seconds of regulation were golden as Kentucky tied the game at 70 with 9.9 seconds remaining. Santa Clara hit a three-pointer with 2.4 seconds left, deflating a hungry Kentucky team’s hopes—that is, before Kentucky managed to return the favor by hitting a buzzer beater in the last few seconds. The Wildcats managed to come in clutch, squeaking by with a narrow victory in overtime.
Despite the Cinderellas bowing out early on, the tourney has been nothing short of a highly entertaining affair where the nation’s strongest teams are coming forward to inch themselves one step closer to gold. It will be exciting to see which teams prevail in the next two rounds during the countdown to the NCAA Championship Game.
