In a college basketball landscape that is continually favoring the power conference team behind their big budgets and grand allure, the room for mid-majors seems to be shortening. Yet, all fans still love a good Cinderella.
In a recent SBNation Reacts poll, fans overwhelmingly voted that at there would be one or two teams at the mid-major level in the Sweet 16, with 77% of fans voting for the result just a year removed from zero mid-major teams making the fray. There were 19% of fans who voted for three
or four, and only 4% voted that zero teams would once again make the second weekend.
After one day of madness, that may in fact become a possibility. VCU, High Point and Saint Louis all advanced to the second round and moved one win away from the Sweet 16. The Rams staged one of the biggest comebacks in the Tournament by knocking off North Carolina in overtime. The Panthers picked off Wisconsin in a highly entertaining game. The Billikens took care of business against Georgia.
Turning to today’s action, things are shaping up to be quite the same. Akron faces a shorthanded Texas Tech team, Santa Clara takes on a below-average Kentucky squad, and Utah State has Villanova in the 8-9 game. All three of them seem poised to claim first-round wins.
The thing to look for: difference in pace. The teams who pull off upsets must dictate of the pace with a large percentage of the last few upsets coming from that statistic alone. The most likely of the teams that came out of yesterday look to be Saint Louis as they take on a juggernaut in Michigan on Saturday. Both teams play extremely fast, but we just saw the Billikens hang 102 on a Georgia team that has been successful in the SEC this year, so following double-digit games on both sides, it’ll be interesting to see which of the squads comes out swinging.
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