The 2019 NCAA tournament made up for its lack of early upsets with breathtaking second-weekend drama. This year there was no UMBC, Florida Gulf Coast or Norfolk State to catch the nation by surprise in the first round, nor was there a Loyola-Chicago that captured fans’ hearts with a deep run. The lowest-seeded team to win a game in the round of 64 was No. 13 seed UC Irvine, which promptly lost to 12th-seeded Oregon, the only double-digit seed to make the Sweet 16.
In return, all four Elite Eight games were instant classics, and multiple Sweet 16 games were heart-stopping affairs—we many not have ended up with Cinderellas, but we still got some unforgettable moments.