The Florida Gators’ bid to repeat as national champions came to a crashing halt in the second round, but the three other regional No. 1 seeds in this year’s NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament are still around.
And many of them are winning convincingly.
In the first week of men’s March Madness this year, games were decided by an average of 15.3 points. According to Sportradar, that represents the third-highest average margin of victory through the round of 32 since 1985, when the tournament expanded to 64 teams before eventually getting to its current 68-team format.
The only NCAA tournaments with higher average victory margins since then came in 1993 (16.1) and 2024 (15.4).
South Region No. 1 seed Florida, which lost to ninth-seeded Iowa 73-72 on Sunday, is the only team seeded No. 1 or No. 2 this year that didn’t advance to the second week.
Here’s a statistic worth noting for each of the teams in the Sweet 16, which will be contested with four games each Thursday and Friday before Elite Eight matchups Friday and Saturday to decide which contenders advance to the Final Four on April 4 at Lucas Oil Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts.
WEST REGION
No. 1 Arizona: The Wildcats, who swept the Big 12’s regular-season and league tournament titles, posted a tourney-leading plus-24.5 rebound margin through their first two games of March Madness. That statistic’s importance is evident from the fact that six of the top eight Division I teams in rebound margin heading into the Big Dance are still alive: Tennessee, Michigan State, Duke, Arizona, Illinois and Michigan. The two exceptions both made the 68-team field but lost on the opening weekend: Florida and Saint Mary’s.
No. 2 Purdue: The Big Ten’s Boilermakers are shooting tourney-leading 57.9% (22-of-38) from 3-point range through the first two rounds. In their 79-69 win over No. 7 seed Miami on Sunday, they became the fourth team ever to shoot at least 50% overall, 50% from 3-point range and 95% from the free-throw line in a March Madness matchup; the others were Syracuse against Montana State in 1996, Marquette against Missouri in 2003 and the University of Connecticut against North Carolina State in 2022.
No. 4 Arkansas: Darius Acuff’s 60 points are the most by a freshman in the first two rounds of any NCAA Division I men’s tournament. Nobody else still playing has scored that many points in this year’s tourney. The young star for the SEC’s Razorbacks has joined Chris Paul (in 2004 with Wake Forest) and Derrick Rose (in 2008 with Memphis) as the only freshmen to have multiple tournament games with at least 20 points and five assists.
No. 11 Texas: Dailyn Swain had five turnovers and just four assists in the Longhorns’ First Four victory over fellow No. 11 seed N.C. State in Dayton, Ohio, but he has totaled 12 assists and one turnover in the two games since. Texas, which was on the NCAA bubble after an early exit at the SEC tournament, has held its three NCAA tourney foes so far to combined 25.9% shooting from 3-point range.
Schedule: Thursday, March 26, at SAP Center in San Jose, California — Purdue (29-8) vs. Texas (21-14), 7:10 p.m. on CBS; Arizona (34-2) vs. Arkansas (28-8), 9:45 p.m. on CBS.
SOUTH REGION
No. 2 Houston: The Big 12’s Cougars are in the Sweet 16 for a seventh consecutive time, which represents the longest active streak of any men’s program, though Houston still has a way to go to match North Carolina’s record of 13 straight Sweet 16 appearances from 1981-93. Sweet 16 records began in 1975, the first year all teams were required to win at least one game to get to that round.
No. 3 Illinois: Tomislav Ivisic had 14 points and 11 rebounds in a second-round win over Virginia Commonwealth University, giving him two double-doubles in four career NCAA tournament games. The 7-foot-1 center from Croatia also can score from long range for the Big Ten’s Fighting Illini; his 101 3-pointers over the past two seasons are the most by any 7-footer during that stretch.
No. 4 Nebraska: Although the Big Ten’s Cornhuskers had never won an NCAA tournament game before last week, Florida’s loss to Iowa means Nebraska now has the longest postseason winning streak (not counting conference tournaments) of any team left in the field. Nebraska won four straight games over Arizona State, Georgetown, Boise State and UCF to win the College Basketball Crown tournament last year in Las Vegas.
No. 9 Iowa: The Hawkeyes will be facing the Huskers for the third time this season. The home team won the two previous meetings: a 57-52 Iowa triumph on Feb. 17 and an 84-75 Nebraska overtime victory on March 8. Iowa must take better care of the basketball this time. The Hawkeyes totaled 22 assists and 31 turnovers in those two previous meetings with the Huskers.
Schedule: Thursday, March 26, at Toyota Center in Houson — Iowa (23-12) vs. Nebraska (28-6), 7:30 p.m. on TBS and truTV; Houston (30-6) vs. Illinois (26-8), 10:05 p.m. on TBS and truTV.
EAST REGION
No. 1 Duke: Blue Devils freshman Cameron Boozer is the first Duke player to have double-doubles in each of his first two NCAA tournament games since Gene Banks and Mike Gminski accomplished the feat in the program’s 1978 Final Four run. Banks had four straight double-doubles and Gminski had three in a row that year. Boozer averaged 20.5 points and 12 rebounds in two victories last week as the Atlantic Coast Conference’s regular-season and league tournament champions secured the program’s 31st trip to the Sweet 16.
No. 5 St. John’s: The Red Storm trailed for only 38 seconds in their 67-65 second-round victory over Kansas, though the Big East champs needed a layup from Dylan Darling to break a tie at the buzzer. Before that, they had gone four straight games without ever falling behind.
No. 2 UConn: Alex Karaban already owns program records for career wins (123), starts (146) and games played (147). The 6-foot-8, fifth-year senior is playing his best for the Big East’s Huskies as his college career draws to a close. Karaban scored a career-high 27 points in a 73-57 win over UCLA on Sunday. The 49 points he has scored thus far in the NCAA tournament represent the most he has ever compiled in a two-game stretch.
No. 3 Michigan State: Jeremy Fears’ 16 assists in a 77-69 second-round win over Louisville represented the highest NCAA tournament single-game total in program history for the Big Ten’s Spartans, breaking the record Magic Johnson set by dishing out 14 assists against Western Kentucky in 1978. He has 13.5 assists per game in this year’s tournament, which is four more than any other player (including those for eliminated teams).
Schedule: Friday, March 27, at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. — Duke (34-2) vs. St. John’s (30-6) at 7:10 p.m. on CBS; Michigan State (27-7) vs. UConn (31-5) at 9:45 p.m. on CBS.
MIDWEST REGION
No. 1 Michigan: The Big Ten’s Wolverines have displayed a knack for winning close games since Dusty May arrived as coach last season. Michigan is 20-5 in games decided by four or fewer points over the last two seasons, including a 7-1 mark this year.
No. 2 Iowa State: Tamin Lipsey is coming off a 26-point, 10-assist performance in an 82-63 win against Kentucky for the Big 12’s Cyclones, who are in the Sweet 16 for the third time in six years, and he also has four steals per game in the NCAA tournament to lead all Sweet 16 performers.
No. 4 Alabama: The Crimson Tide have become an SEC and national force in seven seasons under coach Nate Oats, who puts a priority on efficient shooting, including from long range. Alabama’s 436 makes from behind the 3-point arce this season represent the fifth-highest single-season total in NCAA Division I men’s basketball history. Villanova holds the record with 464 in its 2018 championship season.
No. 6 Tennessee: The SEC’s Volunteers advanced by producing stretches of defensive dominance in each of their first two tourney games. Miami (Ohio), a No. 11 seed and First Four winner, went nearly 6 1/2 minutes without a basket in its 78-56 loss to Tennessee in the round of 32. Virginia went more than 5 1/2 minutes without scoring in its 79-72 defeat Sunday. Tennessee’s offensive star so far has been senior guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie, who averaged 25 points and 7.5 assists through the first two rounds while picking up some of the slack for standout freshman forward Nate Ament, who missed regular-season games down the stretch due to injury.
Schedule: Friday, March 27, at United Center in Chicago — Alabama (25-9) vs. Michigan (33-3) at 7:35 p.m. on TBS and truTV; Iowa State (29-7) vs. Tennessee (24-11) at 10:10 p.m. on TBS and truTV.