The men’s Sweet 16 is set for the NCAA tournament, and it’s time for a reset. We lost half the No. 1 seeds over the first round as Purdue lost in historic fashion to No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson, and reigning champion Kansas dropped a heartbreaker to No. 8 Arkansas.
There are 11 different conferences represented in the final 16 teams, with only the Big East (3), SEC (3), and Big 12 (2) having multiple representatives. Once again, the Big Ten — which hasn’t won a men’s NCAA basketball title since 2000 — is leaving everything up to Michigan State and Tom Izzo.
The last seven title winners have all been eliminated, and there is no Kentucky, Kansas, Villanova, Duke or North Carolina remaining to vie for the championship. There doesn’t feel like there’s a ton of separation from 1 to 16 here, so breaking them out is challenging.
Let’s take a look at how the remaining teams stack up.
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