So far, March Madness has mostly been March Predictable.
For the first time since the NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1994, no team seeded 11th or worse advanced to the second round.
The only two double-digit seeds that made it to the round of 32 were a pair of 10s: Oregon and South Dakota State. The Ducks needed overtime to beat Vanderbilt, and the Jackrabbits topped Oklahoma State by six points, rallying from a double-digit second-half deficit. Oregon’s season end when the Ducks fell to No. 2 seed Duke in a close game Sunday, while South Dakota State plays the second-seeded University of Connecticut on Monday.
With mostly the top seeded teams advancing, it set up some competitive second-round contests, and they didn’t disappoint Sunday, especially the No. 5 seeds as each of them won.
No. 5 Kansas State beat fourth-seeded Kentucky 80-79 in overtime after barely surviving the opening round by holding off 12th-seeded Liberty 79-78.
Kentucky wasn’t the only host to go down Sunday as No. 4 seed Baylor was edged by fifth-seeded Ole Miss in Waco, Texas, and No. 5 seed Tennessee topped No. 4 Ohio State in Columbus.
This was the first time since the NCAA went to the top four seeds hosting the first two rounds that three No. 5 seeds advanced when playing on an opponents home court. It also happened in 2021, when the entire tournament was played in Texas because of the coronavirus pandemic.
No. 6 Florida State plays at No. 3 LSU and No. 6 West Virginia is at No. 3 North Carolina on Monday.
There also was intrigue with second-seeded TCU and Hailey Van Lith facing her former Louisville team, a No. 7 seed, on Sunday. After a good start by the Cardinals, Van Lith and the Horned Frogs took control in the second quarter and won 85-70.
Even with the lack of upsets, it doesn’t mean that there weren’t eye-popping performances in the first 32 games. The top teams all looked dominant in their first-round victories. The four No. 1 seeds — South Carolina, UCLA, Texas and Southern California — won by an average of 47 points.
South Carolina and UCLA both had harder times in the second round before pulling away in the second half to advance to the Sweet 16.
Offense was on full display in the opening round with LSU, Notre Dame, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and UConn all putting up more than 100 points. That was the second time in NCAA tourney history that six teams went over the century mark.
Defense also took center stage at times. Duke held Lehigh to 10 points in the first half while Southern California gave up only 11 to UNC Greensboro. UConn led Arkansas State 66-16 at halftime.