The Elite Eight will begin with a matchup of the largest combined seeds ever to face off this late in the NCAA tournament. It will end with what we’ve come to expect from this round—a game between the top two seeds in a region.
But the numbers in front of the names don’t matter at this point. The winners will head to the Final Four, and the losers will go home. “So much is matchups, and there's so many good teams not playing this weekend,” said Kansas State coach Bruce Weber, whose ninth-seeded team will face No. 11 seed Loyola-Chicago on Saturday in Atlanta.