NCAA Tournament: Reseeding the Sweet 16

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Mar 18, 2016; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish guard Demetrius Jackson (11) battles for a loose ball with Michigan Wolverines guard Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman (12) in the first half in the first round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports /

The Four Seeds

16. Syracuse (previously seeded No. 10)

With victories over Dayton and Middle Tennessee, the Orange find themselves back in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2013 when they made a run to the Final Four.

They won both games in blowout fashion, something that hasn’t occurred often in this tournament, and their zone defense looked absolutely suffocating. They held Dayton to just 32 percent from the floor in Friday’s win, and then in Sunday’s win over Middle Tennessee, the Raiders shot just under 30 percent from the floor.

But let’s keep in mind that Dayton was in the tournament because of their defense, which ranked 13th in kenpom’s adjusted defensive efficiency. Their offense was 173rd in the country.

And let’s not forget that Middle Tennessee was, indeed, a 15-seed.

Sure, they became everyone’s darlings when they knocked off popular Final Four pick Michigan State, but the Blue Raiders were shooting out of their mind against Sparty, finishing the game 11-of-19 from three and 22-of-40 overall. This is a team that shot just 45 percent overall on the season, and ranked 166th in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency.

It’s only fitting that they came back down to earth.

15. Notre Dame (previously seeded No. 6)

The Irish found themselves playing the first round against Michigan, a team many people didn’t think belonged in the tournament in the first place. They somehow managed to hold them to just 63 points, and came away with the victory.

In the Round of 32, they played a drastically underseeded Stephen F. Austin team (they were ranked 26th on KenPom), and actually played very well. However, it still came down to the final possession, with a huge play from a very unlikely hero:

Yes, that’s Rex Pflueger, who you have probably never even heard of before, so here’s some background: Plueger is a freshman from California who had scored just 68 points all season prior to that play.

According to Notre Dame’s athletic website, Pflueger is most like Cinderella of all the Disney princesses, and thinks that Sleeping Beauty is overrated. Fun facts!

14. Wisconsin (previously seeded No. 7)

In an effort to completely erase the horribleness that was the Wisconsin versus Pittsburgh game on Friday night, all I’m going to say about it here is that it was probably the worst tournament game I have ever watched. The fact that Wisconsin broke the record for fewest points scored in the first half of an NCAA Tournament game (16) confirms that.

But they redeemed themselves on Sunday night when they participated in one of the more entertaining games of the tournament, beating two-seed Xavier and looking really great in doing so.

They found themselves down three with about 13 seconds left when Bronson Koenig nailed a pull-up three to tie the game. When Xavier got the ball back, Zak Showalter drew a charge on Edmond Sumner, setting up one of the biggest shots of the tournament:

With Koenig’s three pointer to tie the game with 13 seconds left, and his three to win it at the buzzer, the Badgers scored as many points in those 13 seconds as they did in about the first 14 minutes of Friday’s game. How did Koenig pull-off such magic?

13. Maryland (previously seeded No. 5)

I’m not so sure if I should be impressed that the Terps managed to win Friday night’s opener over South Dakota State despite trying very hard to give it away, or underwhelmed that the game was even close in the first place.

SDSU was down 11 with about four minutes remaining, and somehow managed to have the ball, down three, with the clock under 10 seconds. Now if you’ve been following the tournament closely, you know that that deficit is nothing to Texas A&M. But we’re talking about South Dakota State. Anyway, Keaton Moffitt turned the ball over, and Maryland moved on to play Hawaii.

They managed to run away with the Hawaii game in the second half, but they shot just 1-of-18 from beyond the arc, and looked really bad for about 30 minutes of the game.

Granted, Hawaii is a very good defensive team, and held opponents to just about 30 percent from three this year, on average. But still, Maryland should have rolled over those guys, and if Melo Trimble doesn’t start to figure out a way to score that doesn’t involve the free throw line, they may be in some big trouble against Kansas.

Next: The three-seeds