Four quirky facts about NCAA Tournament and a sad one about KU and K-State
Four full days of college basketball have concluded, and 48 teams saw their season come to an end in that span.
This year’s March Madness hasn’t featured a lot of upsets, but there have been some fantastic finishes (anyone catch that Duke-Central Florida game?).
As college basketball fans take a deep breath and prepare for the Sweet 16 games, here is a look at some unusual features of this year’s tournament. Here are four oddities about the tournament and one sad fact about Kansas and K-State.
Eerie coincidence
This is the first time since the 2009 tournament that all of the top three seeds advanced to the Sweet 16. In 2009, two of the top four seeds failed to advance to the Sweet 16. No. 12 Arizona and No. 5 Purdue took their place. This year, two of the top four seeds advanced. No. 12 Oregon and No. 5 Auburn are the only teams not seeded in the top four to make it to the Sweet 16. So the remaining seeds are exactly the same as they were 10 years ago:
KU, K-State falter
Here’s the sad fact. You don’t have to tell anyone in Kansas City who the No. 4-seeded teams are that failed to make it to the Sweet 16. It’s K-State and KU*. The Jayhawks and Wildcats failed to live up to their seeds, and Texas Tech (seeded third) is the only Big 12 team left in the NCAA Tournament. A year ago, the Wildcats advanced to the Elite Eight and KU made the Final Four.
*If you are wondering, in 2009, it was Washington and Wake Forest.
The Jayhawks were first preseason AP No. 1 to fail to make the Sweet 16 since Duke in 2016-17.
This year is the first time since 2015 that the Big 12 has just one team in the Sweet 16.
Here are the Big 12’s Sweet 16 teams over the last four years:
2018: Kansas State, Kansas, Texas Tech, West Virginia
2017: Baylor, Kansas, West Virginia
2016: Kansas, Iowa State, Baylor
2015: Oklahoma
No upsets in Round of 32
There were literally no upsets in the second round of the tournament. That’s not happened since the NCAA Tournament field expanded to 64 teams:
Let KenPom be your guide
The top 14 teams in the Ken Pom rankings advanced to the Sweet 16, including fifth-seeded Auburn:
Defending champion curse
Villanova lost in the second round, which actually shouldn’t be a surprise. As Sports Illustrated noted, a defending national champ hasn’t made it past the Sweet 16 since Florida won consecutive titles in 2006 and ’07.
This story was originally published March 25, 2019 at 10:57 AM with the headline "Four quirky facts about NCAA Tournament and a sad one about KU and K-State."
