The first weekend of March Madness is in the books, and the Sweet 16 is all set. Check out the latest NCAA Tournament bracket to get ready for the next wave of games beginning on Thursday.
The bracket for the Sweet 16 is set, and there’s a lot of chalk.
Even though we had a ton of drama and intrigue in the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, a lot went exactly like the chalk would lead you to believe. Of the top 16 seeds to make the field, 14 earned their way into the Sweet 16, including every top three seed for the first time in tournament history.
There were two notable exceptions: 5-seed Auburn, which shot Kansas out of the gym on Saturday to earn a date with North Carolina, and 12-seed Oregon. While fans of Cinderella teams are likely disappointed, basketball purists are delighted at some of the high level hoops headed our way in just a few days’ time.
All of the chalk holding form means that we have a ton of elite teams still looking to cut down the nets in Minneapolis, including five from the ACC, which boasts the three favorites to win it all in Duke, North Carolina, and Virginia. The SEC has four teams in the Sweet 16 while the deep Big Ten provides three squads still fighting for a championship.
Here’s a look at the full bracket and a look at what matchups we are in store for in the Sweet 16.
In the end, while we did get some big upsets in the first round of March Madness, these four days will go down in the history books as a bunch of near misses. While plenty of games went down to the wire, top seeds either benefitted from boneheaded mistakes from the underdogs or simply got lucky enough to move on.
The Sweet 16 tips off on Thursday night with action from the South and West regions. The Midwest and East regions will be up the following day.