ACC shines

All four No. 1 seeds are in the Sweet 16, which is rarer than you might think. This has happened just four times in the past 14 tournaments: in 2012 (Kentucky, Michigan State, Syracuse and UNC), 2016 (Kansas, Oregon, UNC and Virginia), 2019 (Duke, Gonzaga, Virginia and UNC) and now in 2024 (UConn, Purdue, Houston and UNC).

Getting all four No. 1 seeds into the Elite Eight is also outside the norm. That’s happened just seven times since seeding began in 1979: in 1987, 1993, 2001, 2007-09 and 2016.

Only once have all four No. 1 seeds reached the Final Four. That happened in 2008, with UCLA, UNC, Memphis and national champion Kansas. There have been three No. 1 seeds in the Final Four three times, in 1997, 1999 and 2015.

What’s even more uncommon is having the eight No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the Sweet 16. This is just the fifth time this has happened, joining 1989, 1995, 2009 and 2019.

It’s been an epically successful tournament for the ACC. The conference is 8-1 overall and has four teams in the Sweet 16 in UNC, No. 4 Duke, No. 7 Clemson and North Carolina State.

The one loss for the ACC came from No. 10 Virginia in the play-in round, giving the league a perfect record in the first and second rounds.

The four Sweet 16 bids are the most for the ACC since 2019 and come after

Purdue has left nothing to chance after last year’s nearly unprecedented loss to No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson.

After a bit of a sluggish start against No. 16 Grambling, the Boilermakers outscored the Tigers 42-23 in the second half to turn a nine-point halftime lead into a 78-50 rout.

It wasn’t even that close in the second run against No. 8 Utah State: Purdue shot 55.9% from the field and 47.8% from deep in a 106-67 win.

After pulling off a disappearing act last year, senior center Zach Edey notched the first 30-point, 20-rebound tournament game in 29 years against Grambling and had 23 points and 14 rebounds against the Aggies.

On the other hand, there’s the tournament bellyflop seen from the SEC. The conference had eight teams in the bracket, tied for the most in the country,

CHARLES LECLAIRE/USA TODAY SPORTS North Carolina State guard Casey Morsell (14) celebrates with forward DJ Burns Jr. (30) after beating Oakland in the second round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.