The NCAA Tournament selection committee revealed its top 16 seeds for the first time Sunday, and within hours, three of the top eight teams lost. That was in addition to UCLA — the top overall seed — losing Thursday, but still retaining its place on the 1-line.
All season, there has been more parity within the contender class than in previous years, and this weekend was a prime example. All of the top 10 teams are capable of going on a Final Four run, but each has flaws that can be exposed in specific matchups, whether that’s South Carolina’s small frontcourt, UConn’s inconsistent shooting, UCLA’s indecision in close games, USC’s lack of secondary scoring options. … The list goes on.
That isn’t to say a worthy champion will struggle to emerge from this field. We continue to witness great performances on a nightly basis as players and programs have to work incredibly hard to gut out wins. Goliaths are fun, and there is beauty to watching teams like last year’s South Carolina blow past every obstacle. But there is also magic in seeing teams persevere and come back from low points, like Texas flipping the script against the Gamecocks or JuJu Watkins powering through a shooting slump to take down a rival.
With so much stumbling at the top, those comeback stories…
