NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 set: Upset-laden first weekend leaves two 1 seeds remaining
After an upset-laden weekend, only four of the eight Sweet 16 games will involve a 1 or 2 seed
By
Kyle Boone
•
1 min read
Bracket Busted? Start fresh each round and compete for your chance to win a trip to the 2019 Final Four. Play Round-by-Round now.
The first weekend of the NCAA Tournament was the perfect example of why they call it March Madness. Half of the 1-3 seeds didn't make it to the Sweet 16, a 16 beat a 1 for the first time ever, and two double digit seeded teams remain in the hunt for the national championship.
Only two days after the top-seeded Virginia Cavaliers were bounced by 16 seed UMBC, Xavier, the top seed in the West, also tripped up. The Musketeers suffered a stunning defeat to No. 9 seed Florida State in the second round on Sunday, 75-70, leaving just two 1 seeds still in the hunt.
That means of the eight Sweet 16 games upcoming this week, only four will involve a No. 1 or No. 2 seed. It's the type of parity that makes March so fun, unpredictable gut-wrenching, especially for those who bowed out early.
Now that the first weekend is in the books, however, the field has been whittled to 16 as the road to the Final Four is now beginning to take shape. Here are the teams that are still in the hunt.
South Region
In Atlanta
No. 5 Kentucky vs. No. 9 Kansas State
No. 7 Nevada vs. No. 11 Loyola-Chicago
West Region
In Los Angeles
No. 4 Gonzaga vs. No. 9 Florida State
No. 3 Michigan vs. No. 7 Texas A&M
East Region
In Boston
No. 1 Villanova vs. No. 5 West Virginia
No. 2 Purdue vs. No. 3 Texas Tech
Midwest Region
In Omaha
No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 5 Clemson
