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NASHVILLE, Tenn.- Just when you thought this year's NCAA Tournament couldn't get any weirder, it did.
We now have a region without any of the top four seeds remaining in the Sweet 16 for the first time in NCAA Tournament. The South has spontaneously combusted, like most of our brackets, leaving us with No. 5 seed Kentucky as the highest seed remaining.
That almost was not to be, but No. 7 seed Nevada came back from 22 points down with 11:37 left in the game to beat No. 2 seed Cincinnati. It is the second largest comeback victory in tournament history, behind only BYU's 25-point come-from-behind win over Iona in the First Four in 2012.
We have already had 15 games where the lower seed has won. The record is 23, set in 1999. Only one of those 23 came in the Elite Eight or beyond. As chaotic as that year seemed, the Final Four featured three No. 1 seeds (Duke, Michigan State and UConn) and a No. 4 seed (Ohio State).
The ACC and Big 12 reign, with four teams each out of the remaining 16. Three of the four ACC teams are in the Midwest Region with Kansas, which is the only major conference school that won its regular-season conference title. The Big Ten and SEC have two teams each. Villanova is the last holdout from the Big East, while teams representing the Missouri Valley (Loyola), Mountain West (Nevada) and West Coast (Gonzaga) conferences also remain alive.
One day after we were talking about the historic disappearance of the Pac-12 from this tournament, something else topped it. The ultimate topper. A 16-seed beat a No. 1. And not just any No. 1 – THE OVERALL No. 1. Virginia fell to UMBC (the University of Monumental Bracket Crashers) 74-54 and became the first top seed to lose in the opening round of the tournament. Yes, I know, the school's real name is University of Maryland-Baltimore County, but I like my version better.
The game was not as close as the score would indicate. The Retrievers didn't just win, they dominated. It tied the third worst loss by a No. 1 seed since seeding started in 1980. The two worse beatings of a top seed happened in Elite Eight games. UCLA lost to No. 2 seed Indiana in 1992 by 27 and in 1998, No. 3 seed Utah beat Arizona by 25.
UMBC also set the record the largest margin of victory for a team seeded 14 or below. Virginia had not given up more than 68 points since a 78-71 win over UNC Wilmington in the opening round of last year's tournament.
And here's a weird twist -- Virginia is actually a little closer to Pittsburgh than Charlotte, but chose to play in Charlotte instead. As the overall No. 1, the Cavaliers got to make the choice of where to play in the first and second rounds. Had they played in Pittsburgh instead, they would have likely gotten to play Radford instead. They did not get assigned a play-in game winner because the committee tries to keep them as close to Dayton as possible, with one playing on Thursday and one on Friday.
NCAA Tournament conference standings through Sunday
*Note - single bid conferences are only listed if their teams won a game.
- Missouri Valley 2-0
- West Coast 2-0
- Big Ten 6-2
- Big 12 8-3
- ACC 10-6
- Mountain West 2-1
- SEC 8-6
- Big East 5-5
- America East 1-1
- Big South 1-1
- Conference USA 1-1
- MAC 1-1
- SWAC 1-1
- American 2-3
- Atlantic 10 2-3
- Pac-12 0-3
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