The first weekend of the 2019 NCAA Tournament is over with the Sweet 16 is set, and we have predictions for who will survive and advance.
College basketball fans salivate all season long about the NCAA Tournament and the calamity of March Madness. The upsets, the buzzer beaters and all of the thrilling moments all make this time of year truly special. But while there have been several wild and heart-stopping instances (looking at you, Duke and UCF) through the first two rounds, the tournament has been quite chalky leading to the Sweet 16 — even if only one perfect bracket exists after 48 games.
Yes, only 16 teams remain alive in the 2019 NCAA Tournament and only two of those teams — No. 12 Oregon in the South Region and No. 5 Auburn in the Midwest Region — are not “supposed” to be there in regards to being the highest possible seed to reach this point. In fact, both the East and West Regions have the top four seeds that have advanced to the Sweet 16.
On one hand, hoops fans that love to see the Cinderella reel off upset after upset are left wanting after these first two rounds. The Oregon Ducks might be a 12-seed coming into the second weekend of the tournament, but they’re also a power conference program making it this far and are hitting their stride right now. So it feels less like they’re wearing a glass slipper and more like they’re just playing to their potential.
However, the other side of the coin is that the Sweet 16 of the 2019 NCAA Tournament should be phenomenally fun to watch. While there haven’t been many upsets, the end result is that we get the top seeds, the de-facto best teams in March Madness, starting to face off with one another. As fans, you have to get excited about that.
As these teams match up, though, will it continue to be chalk all the way to the Final Four? Or will we start to see some upsets in this NCAA Tournament? We’ll try and figure that out as we predict every game in the Sweet 16.