NCAA Basketball News: Sweet 16 Updates

The Sweet 16 round is here, and not all the top seeds are around to see it. However, the betting favorites in Gonzaga and Baylor are still alive and on a collision course to meet in a highly-anticipated final.

Big Ten Crashes Out

All season long, the Big Ten was ranked by pollsters and computers as the top conference in the country. Nine teams were selected for the NCAA Tournament, but after the first weekend, only one team remains: No. 1 seed Michigan. 
 
The conference had a No. 1 seed suffer the worst second-round loss for a top-seeded team in 35 years as Illinois lost by 13 to No. 8 seed Loyola. That margin of loss is the worst by a top seed since Mark Jackson’s St. John’s lost by 16 to Auburn in 1986.
 
Meanwhile, a pair of No. 2 teams went down as Ohio State was stunned by Oral Roberts in the first round, and Iowa fell to Oregon in the second round. Both teams spent part of the season ranked in the top five of the AP Poll, as did the Illini. 
 
Purdue was the other top-four seed to fall as the Boilermakers went out in the first round 78-69 to North Texas. Rutgers, Wisconsin, and Maryland all won their first-round games in seed upsets, but none made it through to the Sweet 16. 
 
The conference stands at 7-8 when including the Michigan State loss to UCLA in the First Four. Only Michigan remains in the tournament, and the Wolverines are -2.5 against No. 4 Florida State on Sunday. 

Pac-12 Leads the Way

The Pac-12 is looking for their first NCAA Men’s basketball championship since Mike Bibby, Miles Simon, and Lute Olson cut down the nets in April of 1997. They are off to a great start as four of the five teams in the tournament made it through to the Sweet 16, and they are guaranteed to have at least one team in the Elite 8.
 
UCLA set the tone for the conference when they rallied to beat Michigan State in the First Four and then knocked off No. 6 BYU in the first round. No. 12 Oregon State also pulled off a pair of upsets in beating No. 5 Tennessee and No. 4 Oklahoma State. 
 
The better seeded Pac-12 teams also took care of business in the first round as No. 5 Colorado and No. 6 USC won on the court while No. 7 Oregon got a no-contest win over VCU. The Buffaloes were the only Pac-12 team eliminated when they fell to No. 4 Florida State in the second round. 
 
Meanwhile, USC thrashed No. 3 Kansas 85-51, and Oregon led from the start in eliminating No. 2 Iowa 95-80. Those teams will meet for a second time this season on Sunday with USC -2. The Trojans beat the Ducks at home 72-58 on Feb. 22 in their lone conference meeting. The winner advances to the Elite 8 to face the winner of No. 1 Gonzaga v. No. 5 Creighton. 

Zags Still the Favorite

The undefeated Gonzaga Bulldogs have been the favorites to win the NCAA championship since the start of the season, and that is still the case heading into the Sweet 16. The Bulldogs are +155 with Baylor at +450, and the third No. 1 seed remaining, Michigan, is at +900. 
 
Outside of the top seeds, Houston is +900 with Alabama at +1200 and both Loyola and Florida State at +1600. Oral Roberts has the longest shot to cut down the nets at +12500, with Syracuse and Oregon State both at +7000. 

Keep up with your latest college basketball news coverage and betting pick previews at The Dunkel Index.