Only about a dozen entrants were eliminated on Thursday as the top seeds mostly avoided massive upsets, with one notable exception. 4-seed Arizona’s embarrassing loss to Buffalo caused minimal damage to the pool, as most wisely steered clear of Sean Miller’s Wildcats. The Pac 12 is now fully eliminated from the NCAA Tournament and probably should’ve been a one-bid league all along. The Loyola-Chicago win over Miami was a perfect March Moment, but was an upset in seeding only, as the game was essentially a coin flip by most metrics and sportsbooks.
Round 2 starts Saturday and all surviving entrants need to submit a selection prior to 11:10 AM Central, when Alabama and Villanova tip off in Pittsburgh.