A region-by-region look at what you might have missed last week and what you shouldn’t miss next week, as the NCAA Tournament heads into the Sweet 16.
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EAST
GOING TO FORM: Not that it’s unusual for a No. 1 seed to encounter very few problems in its first two games. But given all the talk about parity, upsets and the rest of the twists and turns during this unpredictable season, North Carolina’s dominance was impressive. Two wins by a total of 45 points. And the second-round game, against Providence, was actually competitive for the first half. Just enough to keep the Tar Heels sharp – and then they ran away. “I probably think we’ve played our best basketball the entire season in the last couple of weeks,” coach Roy Williams said. Hard to disagree.
WHO WAS THAT?: Give the bracket-buster award in the East to No. 14 seed Stephen F. Austin, which took apart West Virginia in the first round and came one point short of the Sweet 16, in a 76-75 loss to Notre Dame. It took a tip-in from unheralded Rex Pflueger of the Irish with 1.5 seconds left to send the Lumberjacks home. “They’ve set a new standard for SFA basketball,” coach Brad Underwood said of his seniors, who have three tournament appearances and two NCAA wins in their careers.