Which conferences were most impressive and which fell on their face in NCAA Tournament?
The first week of the 2019 NCAA Tournament is in the books.
College football fans, especially those in the SEC, have vocalized a unity with conference affiliation in major bowl and title games.
So which fans have to be jazzed up about their respective conferences in this year’s NCAA men’s basketball tourney as things shift to the Sweet 16 round?
Here are the conference winners and losers, with multiple teams making the Big Dance as the field was cut to 16 teams following Sunday’s second round:
Winners
ACC
Record: 10-2
With three No. 1 seeds, the ACC was given top billing entering the tournament alongside the Big Ten (most teams in the field). Now the conference has the most Sweet 16 teams, with five advancing to the second week of tournament play. Duke survived a legit scare from UCF, with the Knights having two chances at the buzzer to upset the Blue Devils, while UNC and Virginia started off slow against 16-seeds before polishing them off and dusting their second-round opponents. Add in a dangerous Florida State team and the ACC has multiple teams with legit Elite Eight chances.
SEC
Record: 9-3
The SEC is known for its football, but the basketball hasn’t been too bad, either. For the third time in history, the league has four teams in the Sweet 16. What does that mean? Well, the previous two times — 1986 and 1996 — a team from Kentucky ended up cutting down the nets with a national title.
UK is the only team left from the Bluegrass State after dusting off Wofford and limiting star Fletcher Magee to an 0-for-12 performance from 3-point range. Tennessee showed its grit in fending off pesky Iowa in overtime in a second-round game, while LSU battled late-season adversity to turn away Maryland in a tight game. And, of course, Auburn might be the most dangerous team after running away with the SEC tournament title and blowing out perennial power Kansas.
Big Ten
Record: 10-5
They had the most teams in the field of 68 and the most teams making it to the second round. One team was guaranteed elimination in the all-Big Ten matchup between Michigan State and Minnesota. But Iowa, which found itself with a 25-point deficit against Tennessee on Sunday, was a real hero early in the final day of the first week. The Hawkeyes battled the Vols tight and forced overtime before Tennessee pulled away with clutch play after clutch play. Michigan and Michigan State look like the most dangerous teams from this conference moving into the Sweet 16 round.
Losers
Big 12
Record: 5-5
Only Texas Tech is carrying the league banner forward to the Sweet 16. Kansas State, which was the conference’s co-champion in the regular season with the Red Raiders, was upset in the first round by UC Irvine, while Auburn blew out Kansas and the rest of the conference’s six entrants either underperformed or came up short against more talented opposition.
Pac-12
Record: 3-2
East Coast bias or not, the Pac-12 wasn’t great during the regular season and only had three teams make the tournament field. That tends to happen when UC Irvine becomes the best team in California, surpassing traditional powerhouse UCLA — based off this season, anyway — and USC. Granted, Oregon caught fire late in the season and was a trendy pick entering the tournament, but there just wasn’t much firepower in this league this season.
Big East
Record: 1-3
Only three teams made the field, but it wasn’t a good showing for the conference. Two were bounced right away. Marquette fell to the Ja Morant Show against Murray State, while defending national champion Villanova, which lost a lot from last year’s title team, was blown out in a Round of 32 game against Purdue.
This story was originally published March 24, 2019 at 11:56 PM with the headline "Which conferences were most impressive and which fell on their face in NCAA Tournament?."
