Sometimes, the NCAA tournament is full of surprises. And then there are years like this.
All of the 1-seeds will watch the Elite Eight from home. All of them.
The West Coast Conference, the Mountain West and Conference USA are still alive. The Big Ten and SEC, which combined to earn 16 bids in the NCAA tournament, have both been eliminated.
The national champion this year will not be higher than a 2-seed and could be as low as a 9-seed. Just one of the remaining teams has won it before. Nothing has made sense.
With that premise, we make our last attempt to reseed the field and all the chaos attached to it. At this point, we’re adding a lot of weight to the way a team is playing right now. But, please save your DMs. Your team is in the Elite Eight. Relax.
Sixty teams wish they were you right now. Enjoy the ride.
1. UConn Huskies
Original Seed: No. 4. Reseed: No. 1 overall
In one of the most dominant runs to the Elite Eight we’ve seen in college basketball over the last 20 years, the 2017-18 Villanova squad, which featured Wooden Award winner Jalen Brunson, won its first three NCAA tournament games by 26 points (Radford), 23 points (Alabama) and 12 points (West Virginia) for a combined margin of victory of 61 points. Nova remained untouchable, winning each of the rest of its games by double digits, including its second national title in three years.
Thus far, UConn has won its first three games by 24 points (Iona), 15 points (Saint Mary’s) and 23 points (Arkansas). That’s a combined margin of victory of 62 points. While the rest of the field (except Alabama, of course) has faced nail-biters and close calls at some point in their NCAA tournament experiences, the Huskies have not encountered any real adversity. That’s not due to the competition they’ve faced. Iona possessed the most efficient offense in the MAAC, and both Saint Mary’s and Arkansas were ranked top 15 in adjusted defensive efficiency on KenPom when they faced the Huskies. UConn has just been that good.
The chatter entering the NCAA tournament was that if Danny Hurley’s team reached its offensive ceiling, it would be difficult to beat. That has been true. But that’s also not the full story of a UConn team averaging 81.6 PPG through three tournament games. The Huskies have also been a serious defensive threat. Iona connected on just 36.6% of its shots inside the arc against them. Not one Saint Mary’s player finished with double figures against UConn. And Arkansas missed 43 of its…
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