NCAA Men’s Tournament Sweet 16 is Set, with Few Surprises

Duke Blue Devils forwards RJ Barrett (5) in March. Photo by Jacob Kupferman/CSM/REX/Shutterstock (10158161bp)

After one weekend of the men’s NCAA Basketball tournament, nearly all of its favored teams are still alive.

The first two rounds of the competition took place last weekend in various cities across the countries. Few upsets occurred, something which is quite atypical come tournament time.

Of the 16 teams left, 14 of them are either a 1, 2, 3, or 4 seed in the tournament.

The only two teams which aren’t are 5th seeded Auburn, which won the SEC Tournament, and 12th seeded Oregon, which won the Pac-12 tournament. In short, things are going as expected so far.

One of the tournament’s favorites, #1 seed Duke, was the giant that came the closest to falling over the weekend. They faced off against Central Florida on Sunday and nearly lost on a last-second layup that rolled in and out of the rim.

The Sweet 16 begins on Thursday night with the South and West region games.

After the Sweet 16 games finish on Friday, Elite 8 games will determine the winners of the regions and the teams that will advance to the Final 4. These games will be played on Saturday and Sunday.

Each winner of their respective region will win a berth to play in the Final 4 in the first weekend of April in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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