The NCAA Tournament has reached the Sweet 16, and many of the usual suspects made it. There also are a few surprise teams and matchups. Don’t feel bad if you’re having trouble keeping track of it all.
Saint Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli spoke for many over the weekend when he said there’s only so much college basketball a person can absorb when there are games on television night after night starting in November. In fact, he confessed he knew nothing about his team’s second-round opponent, the Oregon Ducks, before he found out his Hawks would be playing them.
No. 1 seeds Kansas, North Carolina, Oregon and Virginia and No. 2s Oklahoma and Villanova have gotten lots of attention. So with Martelli in mind, let’s throw out some nuggets on some of the other teams so we’re ready when the games resume Thursday.
DOUBLE-DIGIT SEEDS: The Midwest Regional semifinal between No. 11 Gonzaga and No. 10 Syracuse on Friday will mark the fourth time double-digit seeds have met in the Sweet 16 since seeding began in 1979. The other occasions were Dayton-Stanford in 2014, VCU-Florida State in 2011 and Providence-Chattanooga in 1997.
The Gonzaga-Syracuse matchup was predicted on 1.3 percent of the 13 million brackets submitted to the ESPN Tournament Challenge. Gonzaga is no stranger to the Sweet 16, having made it seven times. But what in the name of Adam Morrison are the Zags – yes, they’re the Bulldogs, but we know them better as the Zags – doing here this year?