After one weekends worth of play, we have our Sweet Sixteen teams. Along the way, we saw one #1 seed, one #2 seed and two #3 seeds fall. #1 seeded Villanova lost to #8 seeded North Carolina State 71-68. #2 seeded Virginia lost to #7 seed Michigan State 60-54. Both #3 seeded Iowa State and Baylor lost in their opening round games to #14 seeds UAB and Georgia State.
Of the 16 teams that remain, 5 are seeded a 6 or higher, those teams are #6 Xavier, #7 Michigan State, #7 Wichita State, #8 North Carolina State, and #11 UCLA. UCLA is an interesting case. Many analyst didn’t even have UCLA as one of the last four out, so the fact that they made the tournament left many scratching their heads. UCLA has however since taken care of business defeating #6 Southern Methodist University and #14 UAB (defeated #3 Iowa State). UCLA will take on #2 Gonzaga on Friday. Gonzaga, who normally underperforms in the tournament took care of #7 Iowa who shocked many when they man handled #10 Davidson.
In the East of the bracket we no longer have #1 Villanova or #2 Virginia left. That leaves #3 Oklahoma and #4 Louisville as the top teams left in that region. Oklahoma takes on #8 North Carolina State while Louisville face #7 Michigan State. It will be interesting to see which team of these four emerges and punches their ticket to the Final Four.
No one has yet to knock off the #1 overall seed Kentucky Wildcats. Kentucky took care of business with #16 Hampton in their opening round game and then took on #8 Cincinnati. While the Bearcats put up a fight, Kentucky in the end was still too much. The Wildcats now have #5 West Virginia on Thursday. Will Kentucky finish the season undefeated and tournament champs?