Favorites Going 16-0 This Weekend Was The Best Thing For The NCAA Tournament

Well, 4 days, numerous hours, wings, greasy food and beer all down. 16 teams left and wouldn’t you know that favorites went 16-0 straight up the last two days. There’s been a ton of outrage and yelling about it.

I mean we’re going to be honest here. The first four days of the tournament are typically the best four days of the year. This year they were not. The majority of the games sucked. We had a couple of moments – most notably the last 20 seconds of the Duke/UCF game and the Tremont Waters game winner that stick out. But, the majority of games were blowouts.

Then it was highlighted by the favorites going 16-0 straight up during the Round of 32.

Depending on how you look at it, it was shocking or not. All season there has been a pretty clear gap between the top-10 teams or so and then everyone else. That’s where we saw those first round upsets that gave us all No. 9 seeds advancing, a No. 11, three No. 12 seeds and a No. 13.

But, the fact that we have all chalk – literally the chalkiest tournament ever – is a great thing for the next week. We get the names like Kentucky, Duke, UNC, Gonzaga, Michigan, Michigan State and Virginia advancing. We have the top-10 teams like Texas Tech, Auburn, Tennessee and Florida State. We have the consistent teams like Houston, Virginia Tech and Purdue advancing. 14 power 5 schools, Gonzaga and an AAC school.

That should set up for an awesome Sweet 16 and Elite Eight. The names sell everywhere and set up for major Elite Eight games. But, we’ve seen this before. The 2009 NCAA Tournament had the same chalk, but the Sweet 16 didn’t have those awesome games. If we get a few great games, this is the best thing for the NCAA Tournament. It would make up for the lack of excitement the last four days.

Please, basketball gods. Bless us with an awesome Sweet 16 that lives up to the names.