When the NCAA tournament bracket was released on Selection Sunday, there was a common thought that the strongest overall region of the tournament’s four was the South.
All 4 top seeds from one region lost before the Sweet 16 for the first time ever
The South Region quickly went from the Dream Region to the Death Region.
Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
It wasn’t a difficult case to make. The South Region featured the tournament’s overall No. 1 seed in Virginia, a team that had dominated both the ACC regular season and tournament. Two more dual conference champions, Cincinnati out of the AAC and Arizona out of the Pac-12, drew into the region as the No. 2 and No. 4 seeds, respectively. Many made the claim that Sean Miller’s team was the most under-seeded in the entire field of 68. Rounding out the top five seeds were the two most dangerous teams from the SEC (sorry, Auburn) in No. 3 seed Tennessee and No. 5 seed Kentucky.
Fast forward a week and the South Region has indeed made history through the tournament’s opening two rounds. It just isn’t the type of history anyone could have seen coming.
The South Region is the first region in the history of March Madness to not advance a single one of its top four seeds to the Sweet 16.
No. 1 seed Virginia was stunned by No. 16 seed UMBC on Friday.
No. 2 Cincinnati blew a 22-point lead with 11 minutes to go in a loss to No. 7 seed Nevada on Sunday.
No. 3 seed Tennessee was beaten in the final seconds by No. 11 Loyola-Chicago on Saturday.
No. 4 seed Arizona got the party started when it was blown out by Buffalo in the first round on Thursday.
These losses have left the South Region in a state of chaos the likes of which we’ve never seen heading into the second weekend of the tournament. It’s also left Kentucky with what appears to be a very navigable path to its fifth Final Four in the last eight years.
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