Trimming the field from 68 to 16 by Sunday night had many twists, turns, buzzer beaters, heartbreaks, dreams fulfilled, and blowouts (few and far between). So for the conference roll call, we have 3 ACC, (Duke, North Carolina, Florida State), 2 Big East (Marquette, UConn), 2 SEC (Florida, Kentucky), 2 Big 10 (Ohio State, Wisconsin), 2 Mountain West (San Diego State, BYU), 1 Big 12 (Kansas), 1 Pac 10 (Arizona), 1 Colonial (VCU), 1 Horizon (Butler), and 1 Atlantic 10 (Richmond).
The biggest surprises of the weekend were the ACC dominating and going 7-1 and getting 3 teams into next weekend, the city of Richmond (VCU, Richmond) placing two teams in San Antonio for the Sweet 16, and 5 of the 16 teams being an 8 seed or higher (Butler, Florida State, VCU, Marquette, and Richmond).
The disappointing side includes the Big East having 11 teams make the tournament but only 2 advancing to the Sweet 16, Pitt being the first #1 seed eliminated, and Tennessee no showing and losing by 30 to Michigan in the first round.
The most dominating teams from the opening weekend were Ohio State, Kansas, BYU, Connecticut, and VCU. VCU sticks out like a sore thumb among the group but their whippings of Georgetown and Purdue definitely put them on this list. Not only that but they also won in the First Four game on Wednesday night.
Butler and Arizona lived on a prayer this weekend. They both have won their two games by a combined three points. All four of those games were instant classics but especially the Pitt-Butler game that had so many twists and turns in the final 7 seconds. With both advancing, it makes me look kinda smart in my bracket. Plenty of other areas of the bracket humbled me quickly though.
Heading into the Sweet 16, here are the conference standings:
Power 6 Scorecard:
ACC: 7-1
Big East: 9-8
SEC: 4-3
Pac 10: 4-3
Big 10: 7-5
Big 12: 4-4
Others of note:
Mountain West: 4-1
Atlantic 10: 3-2
CAA: 4-2
Conference USA: 0-2
