The calendar says it’s March. Most of the madness has been missing so far.
There certainly have been upsets. Just ask the owners of the 99.9956% of brackets with at least one blemish.
But with the first round of the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament complete Friday night, the bracket was bereft of the buzzer-beating finishes and major upsets that have become ubiquitous during March Madness.
Nothing like Fairleigh Dickinson over top-seeded Purdue or UMBC taking down No. 1 Virginia. Not even something in the neighborhood of Princeton over No. 2 seed Arizona or Saint Peter’s chopping down blue blood Kentucky.
The top four seeds in each region in the 68-team event went a combined 16-0 in the first round for the first time since 2017 and the sixth time since the field expanded to 64 in 1985. The top two seeds won by an average of nearly 26 points.