The Sweet 16 is a little different this season, but it’s better. There isn’t a Saint Peter’s this season or George Mason or a Loyola Chicago. It’s pretty chalky and that’s the way it should be. Keep the upsets and the Cinderallas to the first two rounds. The second weekend is for high-level basketball. The best teams, the best coaches, and the best players matching up in great games on the biggest stage.
Every No. 1 seed and every No. 2 seed made it to the second weekend. A very good No. 3 seed Illinois squad is still alive. A red-hot No. 4 seed Duke team is playing its best basketball. A running and gunning Alabama team and veteran-laden Creighton squad are still fighting for a deep run.
And there are still storylines.
The best is No. 11 seed N.C. State. The Wolfpack out of Raleigh, N.C. is the highest remaining seed and the closest thing we have to a Cinderella remaining. They have won seven straight games going back to a sleepy Tuesday afternoon in Washington, D.C. at the ACC Tournament. N.C. State ran off five straight wins in Capital One Arena, including a victory over Duke, an overtime win over Virginia, and then a dominant shellacking of UNC in the championship game.
N.C. State was 17-14 on March 9. They earned an automatic tournament bid and then reeled off two wins over sixth-seeded Texas Tech and No. 14 seed Oakland in the NCAA Tournament
But N.C. State, who will face No. 2 seed Marquette on Friday night in Dallas, is far from your classic slipper-fitting tournament team. With an enrollment of over 25,000 undergraduates and an endowment of 2.04 billion, N.C. State is a large public land-grant university right in the middle of basketball-crazed Tobacco Road. The Wolfpack fan base is intense, rabid, and fiercely loyal. They crave a winner. And that’s all they have done in March.
N.C. State’s postseason run has completely flipped the trajectory and future of the once-proud basketball program. The Wolfpack’s ACC Championship instantly triggered a two-year extension for head coach Kevin Keatts. Making the Sweet 16 added another year to Keatts’ contract. He’s also earned multiple bonuses for his postseason success.
Keatts was on the hot seat entering the postseason before the ACC Tournament. In seven seasons under Keatts, the Wolfpack were 130-93 overall and 63-68. There was a decent chance Keatts was getting fired after the 2023-24 season. Now he’s added three years to his contract and has N.C. State in the Sweet 16
But it’s not just N.C. State. There are incredible matchups and storylines across the board. Every matchup should be pretty good. Other than maybe any game that includes UConn. The Huskies look dominant and are on a very focused and scary war path right now to the Final Four and back-to-back national championships. Dan Hurley is a singularly focused manic using any sniff of a slight to motivate his team. There is beauty in elite college teams like Connecticut.
Illinois vs. Iowa State in Boston is an exciting Midwest showdown pairing the No. 1 team in adjusted offensive efficiency vs. the No. 1 team in adjusted defensive efficiency, per KenPom.
UNC vs. Alabama could get into the 90s. Two fast-paced teams who love to shoot threes and score the basketball. It’s a name-brand game. UNC is the traditional basketball school in beautiful and pure Carolina blue vs. the traditional football powerhouse in dark Crimson. Also, it’s a sneaky great coach blazer game. Keep your eyes on the jackets that head coach Hubert Davis and Nate Oats wear on the bench.
If there is another surprise Sweet 16 team it is Clemson who take on Caleb Love and Arizona in Los Angeles on Thursday. The Tigers are led by two savvy veterans in forward PJ Hall and fifth-year Syracuse transfer Joe Girard.
Don’t look ahead, but if UNC can get past Bama, and the Wildcats defeat the Tigers, we get Arizona’s Caleb Love versus his old team, the Tar Heels. Love led Carolina to the national championship game in 2022. It’s a storyline and drama only fitting for Hollywood.
Of course, Houston vs. Duke pairs one of the best teams in college basketball vs. an up-and-down Blue Devil squad that just drilled James Madison to another planet. Is Duke back to being good? Or will they get exposed vs. a veteran, talented, and well-coached Courgar team?
Purdue vs. Gonzaga has tons of intrigue. It will feature college basketball’s most dominant player Zach Edey and a Boilermaker program looking for redemption after getting booted in the first round last year by No. 16 seed FDU. Purdue has all the pieces and a force down low that is almost impossible to contain. But Mark Few and the Zags just keep winning. This is Gonzaga’s ninth (!) straight Sweet 16.
And finally, No. 3 Creighton vs. No. 2 Tennessee, which might be the best game on paper. All-American Dalton Knecht is an amazing story on its own, but the Volunteers will have their hands full with what could be Greg McDermott’s best team in years.
This Sweet 16 is a dream for college basketball purists. It has big-name brand teams (UNC, Duke, UConn, Arizona and Gonzaga), it has star players (Zach Edey, Dalton Knecht, DJ Burns, Terrence Shannon Jr., RJ Davis, Jaedon LeDee, Mark Sears, PJ Hall, Ryan Kalkbrenner, Kyle Filipowski and Jamal Shead), and it has the big time coaches (Dan Hurley, Kelvin Sampson, Mark Few, Greg McDermott, Matt Painter and Rick Barnes). The matchups will bring high-level ball to your television on the biggest stage.
It’s okay we don’t have the upstart Cinderella team from a school you’ve never heard of.
The basketball will be better.
