It’s one of the best times of the year where parentheses break faster than they were made and we’re now in the infancy of some Cinderella stories.
It’s only been two days since the March Madness tournament and a lot of ups and downs have already happened. Kentucky lost to the St. Peters, a school that could be bigger than your high school, Iowa dropped out because of Richmond, and USC’s record-breaking season ended at the hands of Miami.
One of the surviving teams was Texas, a program led by first-year head coach Chris Beard. The Longhorns were able to beat one of the hottest teams in the country at Virginia Tech, coming off winning the ACC tournament.
Texas would be rewarded for taking on Purdue, one of the best three point shooting teams in the country, which also happens to be two really talented big men. Not a perfect matchup, but at least the Longhorns were able to end their drought of not progressing beyond the first round of the tournament.
Former Texas coach Shaka Smart found himself in a familiar spot, as he and Marquette were blown away by North Carolina and were knocked out in the first round.
The Big 12 did well overall, as all six teams doing the big dance were able to survive and advance, but not all conferences were so lucky. Here’s how the Power 6 conference (yes basketball has six) fared in the first round of March Madness.
acc
Bob Donan – USA TODAY SPORTS
Winning Teams: North Carolina, Miami, Notre Dame and Duke
Losing Teams: Virginia Tech
Big 12 (6-0)
Jeff Hanish – USA TODAY SPORTS
Winning Teams: Baylor, Kansas, Texas Tech, Texas, Iowa State and TCU
Losing Teams: N/A
Big Ten (6-3)
Gregory Fisher – USA TODAY SPORTS
Winning Teams: Michigan, Ohio State, Purdue, Illinois, Michigan State, and Wisconsin
Losing Teams: Rutgers (Play In), Iowa, Indiana,
Big East (3-3)
Geoff Burke – USA TODAY SPORTS
Winning Teams: Providence, Creighton and Villanova
Losing Teams: Maquette, Yukon and Seton Hall
SEC (3-3)
Trevor Raszkowski – USA TODAY SPORTS
Winning Teams: Tennessee, Arkansas and Auburn
Losing Teams: Kentucky, Alabama and LSU
Pac-12 (2-1)
Sobam Im – USA TODAY SPORTS
Winning Teams: UCLA and Arizona
Losing Teams: USC
