The opening week of the NCAA Tournament is now in the books and it has given us many moments that are worth talking about. The biggest takeaway is the disappearance of Cinderella in this year’s tournament. Only about three major upsets occurred in the first round and one of those teams is a power conference member in Texas. The other two upsets were High Point and VCU. High Point had a great victory over Wisconsin in the first round, but were a team that a number of fans had picked to pull of the upset. VCU was able to upset North Carolina. Unfortunately, neither High Point or VCU were able to make it to the sweet sixteen. However, the lack of major upsets has led to a number of compelling match-ups set up for the sweet sixteen. Having mostly favorites winning will probably draw more casual fans to watch the rest of the tournament, which is a good thing.

One of the great match-ups taking place starting on Thursday is Duke vs St. John’s. This is a battle between two teams that like to put defensive pressure on opponents and push the pace. Also, any game featuring Rick Pitino against Duke is a must watch. Another great match-up is Arizona vs Arkansas. Both teams play a similar up tempo style of basketball. Personally, I picked Arkansas to make it to the final four because of their athleticism and length. However, Arizona is the top seed and has played like it so far through the tournament. Iowa St. vs Tennessee will feature two of the most aggressive and physical defenses in college basketball. Expect a low scoring game in this match-up. Finally, Illinois vs Houston should be an excellent match-up. Houston is a physical team who will try to push Illinois around. However, Illinois features a team who can score points in a hurry and specializes in shooting and making threes.

So while having a number of upsets in the tournament is exciting, it sometimes produces match-ups between teams that people don’t know very much about. That is not the case for this year’s NCAA Tournament. Blue blood programs like Duke, UConn, Houston, Iowa St., and Purdue give the sweet sixteen match-ups a big fight feel to them. There are still lower seeded teams left in the field such as Iowa and Texas. However, it is a stretch to think of these teams as being traditional Cinderella’s in the NCAA Tournament. However, that’s probably what people want. Big name schools and brands trying to make it to this year’s final four. Sometimes less madness can be a good thing.

BY: Jason Grant