With the first two rounds of March Madness wrapping up, the Sweet 16 is scheduled to begin this evening.
After starting with 68 teams the tournament now has 16 teams in contention for the NCAA title, here are the 16 teams that survived the first two rounds.
Auburn, the No. 1 seed in the South Region is still standing, which isn’t a surprise to most people. The Tiger’s tournament ceiling is projected to be the National Title, according to a March 16 ESPN article.
The Tigers are scheduled to play the fifth seed University of Michigan, which beat UC San Diego 68-65 in the first round, and then upset the No.4 seed Texas A&M, 91-79.
The same ESPN article has the Wolverines projected to make it to the Final Four. That can only be done if they pull off an upset against Auburn, a matchup which will be played on Friday evening.
Duke, the East Region’s top seed, is also scheduled to compete in the Sweet 16. The Blue Devils had two blowout wins, beating Mount St. Mary’s by 44, followed by a 23-point victory against Baylor.
The team is set to play the No. 4 University of Arizona tonight; a team that defeated the University of Akron in Round One and the University of Oregon in Round Two.
Like Auburn and Duke, the other two first seeds University of Florida and University of Houston are in the Sweet 16.
The Gators won their first game against Norfolk State, 95-69 and narrowly escaped an upset as they defeated the University of Connecticut in the next round by only two points. The team now looks to defeat Maryland tonight for a spot in the Elite Eight.
As for Houston, they dominated Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, winning by 38-points in the Round of 64 and also just avoided an upset beating No.5 Gonzaga, 81-76.
The Cougars are lined up to play Purdue, the March Madness runner-up last season on Friday.
Also in this part of the tournament is the South Region sixth seed, Ole Miss, who upset the No. 3 Iowa State 91-78, but not before taking out Lipscomb 82-55 in the First Round.
The Rebels plan to take on Michigan State, who beat University of New Mexico 71-63. The matchup is scheduled for Friday.
Houston isn’t the only Cougars in the Sweet 16, BYU is still in the tournament after upsetting No. 3 Wisconsin last Saturday in a close 91-89 victory. With that win, the BYU Cougars are scheduled to match up against the No. 2 seed Alabama tonight, hoping to pull off another upset.
Speaking of upsets, the No. 10 Arkansas Razorbacks still have a shot at the title after defeating the No. 2 St. John’s University, 75-66 and they will now go up against the No. 3 Texas Tech University, who took care of the eleventh seed Drake University last Saturday winning, 77-64.
The final two spots in the Sweet 16 portion of March Madness belong to No. 3 Kentucky and No.2 Tennessee.
Tennessee has a tournament ceiling of the National Title and Kentucky has a ceiling of the Elite Eight according to the same source.
The two are scheduled to play each other Friday, allowing the Wildcats to prove ESPN wrong and eliminate the Volunteers.
The winners of the Sweet 16 will be scheduled to compete in the Elite Eight which is set to between March 29-30 as seen on the live bracket from the NCAA.
