After two lively and incredible first couple of rounds of the tournament, the Sweet 16 was pretty big letdown. Only a couple of upsets and a few close games took place. Here’s hoping for a better Elite Eight on Monday and Tuesday nights. Let’s now rank the games from best to worst and compare how my pre-round intrigue rankings compare to how the games actually played out.
| Ranking the NCAA Sweet 16 Games (Postgame) | Prerank | |
| 1 | (3) Arkansas vs. (15) Oral Roberts- Sat 7:25 (TBS): Bankers Life Fieldhouse: History was almost made here and Max Abmas’ buzzer beating near miss almost sent a 15 seed to the Elite 8. | 1 |
| 2 | (2) Alabama vs. (11) UCLA- Sun 7:15 (TBS): Hinkle Fieldhouse: The Tide hit the first true buzzer beater of the tourney to send the game to OT but the overtime period ended up being a Bruin beatdown | 6 |
| 3 | (8) Loyola Chicago vs. (12) Oregon State- Sat 2:40 (CBS): Bakers Life Fieldhouse: Sister Jean gets sent home early as her Ramblers failed to hit shots in this one. The game was at least close until the final couple of minutes which more than we can say about most of the other games on this list. | 1 |
| 4 | (1) Baylor vs. (5) Villanova- Sat 5:15 (CBS): Hinkle Fieldhouse: The Wildcats hung around for a while here but eventually the Bears pulled away in the second half. | 8 |
| 5 | (6) Southern Cal vs. (7) Oregon- Sun 9:45 (TBS): Bankers Life Fieldhouse: The favorite dominated this game from start to finish | 4 |
| 6 | (2) Houston vs. (11) Syracuse- Sat. 9:55 (TBS): Hinkle Fieldhouse: See comment above for game # 5 | 3 |
| 7 | (1) Gonzaga vs. (5) Creighton- Sun 2:10 (CBS): Hinkle Fieldhouse: See comments above for game #’s 5 and 6 | 7 |
| 8 | (1) Michigan vs. (4) Florida State- Sun 5:00 (CBS): Bankers Life Fieldhouse: See comments above for game #’s 5, 6, and 7 | 5 |
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22403481/1309501194.jpg)
Ramblings of the Ultimate Sports Sentimentalist 