Evaluating the winners and losers after the first weekend of men’s NCAA Tournament action:
Stock up: The SEC. As recently as 2016, the Southeastern Conference put only three teams into the Big Dance. That was the third time in four seasons (2013-16) the league sent only a trio of teams into NCAA play.
This year, the SEC got seven teams into the NCAA tourney, saw five advance to the round of 32 and has four — Auburn, Kentucky, LSU and Tennessee — alive in the sweet 16.
It is only the third time (1986 and 1996) the SEC has ever placed a quartet in the round of 16.