Where's The Madness? Favorites Dominate NCAA Tournament Round Of 32

Underdog stories are one of the most popular things about the NCAA Tournament. College basketball fans remember George Mason's and VCU's  Final Four runs as 11-seeds in 2006 and 2011, respectively. 

Other notable recent Cinderella stories include Sister Jean and the 11-seed Loyola Chicago Ramblers making the 2018 Final Four and 15-seed Saint Peter's getting to the Elite Eight two years ago. But this year, there is only one Cinderella left in the Big Dance. 

The NC State Wolfpack is the only double-digit seed to advance to this year's Sweet 16. The next closest seed to NC State is its ACC co-tenant, the Clemson Tigers, which are the 6-seed in the West Region. 

Even for someone like me who doesn't get all jazzed up about underdog stories, the Round of 32 this past weekend was a snoozefest. Granted, I went 2-0 Sunday in my second-round bets, so I'm not that mad. However, 11 of the 16 second-round games Saturday and Sunday had a 10+ point margin. Although, it took double overtime for the Creighton Bluejays to beat the Oregon Ducks 86-73. 

Regardless, the 2024 NCAA Tournament is missing juice. There was hope Cinderella would stick around at the ball past the first round. James Madison, Yale, Duquesne, Grand Canyon, Oakland University (the fighting Bobby Buracks), and Colorado made it to the weekend as double-digit seeds. Then, one by one, they all turned into pumpkins. 

For what it's worth, I felt this coming. The comparison I drew when discussing the Round of 32 in my gambling group chats is the NFL Divisional Weekend. Every year there are upsets in the NFL wild-card round of the playoffs. Those teams become public darlings during the media freeze the week after. Then they usually get smacked when they go on the road to play the division champions. 

Oakland Golden Grizzlies SG Jack Gohlke shoots a three in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh. (Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports)

Yet, that's not supposed to happen for the Big Dance. Per Gill Alexander, host of VSIN's A Numbers Game, this is the second-chalkiest NCAA Tournament behind the 2019 tourney. All 12 top seeds made it to the Sweet 16 and the Virginia Cavaliers won the national title. It makes sense that 2019 was the dullest tourney since Virginia is the most boring team ever in basketball. 

With that in mind, we all should've seen this coming. The Cavaliers were a First Four team in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. They began the tourney with one of the worst basketball games I've ever seen. Virginia lost to Colorado State 67-42 Tuesday and the Cavaliers scored just 14 first-half points. Hopefully, the tournament picks up steam for the Sweet 16, or else I'm pivoting to baseball season early. 

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