Updated NCAA Tournament bracket: Loyola, Syracuse lead underdogs into Sweet 16

With the first weekend of March Madness in the books, let’s assess the damage and see what teams haven’t busted your bracket.

One weekend of March Madness is behind us, and as the dust settles on all of the busted brackets across America, we look ahead to the Sweet Sixteen.

Let’s spare the flirtation and get right to it: the South Region is the Bermuda Triangle of college basketball. Really good teams went into the “Dream Region” and simply disappeared. Arizona lost to Buffalo, Miami and Cincinnati both lost, and Virginia became the first No. 1 seed to ever lose a first-round game.

What made these upsets special — Loyola nail-biters aside — was the sheer force in which the lower seeds dominated their competition. It would have been one thing if 16-seeded UMBC beat Virginia on some flukey buzzer beater; it’s March, after all. Instead, the Retrievers blew the doors off the ACC champions and thus set a tone for the rest of the weekend.

Texas A&M blew out the defending champions, North Carolina. Buffalo went scorched earth on Arizona. Butler basically showed Arkansas how the game of basketball is played.

We had our buzzer beaters too: Michigan inching by Houston, who themselves had to outlast San Diego State. Loyola twice used the final moments of a game to win, while Syracuse eeked out an upset over Michigan State.

As we head into Sweet Sixteen week, here’s a look at how the bracket shakes out:

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Let’s rundown the biggest upsets of the first weekend:

• No. 16 UMBC beating No. 1 Virginia
• No. 11 Loyola beating both No. 3 Tennessee and No. 6 Miami (FL)
• No. 7 Texas A&M beating No. 2 North Carolina
• No. 11 Syracuse knocking off both No. 3 Michigan State and No. 6 TCU
• No. 13 Marshall upsetting No. 5 Wichita State
• No. 7 Nevada coming back from over 20-points down to beat No. 2 Cincinnati
• No. 9 Florida State bumping off No. 1 Xavier

Usually, the biggest upset of the weekend would have been Florida State taking out the No. 1 seed in the tournament. That doesn’t even rank Top-5, which goes to show just how truly mad this March has been.

Next: 12 Biggest Cinderellas In March Madness History

It’s March, so we just have to accept the fact that life is at its most unpredictable this time of the year.