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2017 NCAA Tournament: 5 most likely second-round upsets

By Taylor Sturm

Mar 10, 2017; Birmingham, AL, USA; Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders bench reacts to his team's play against the UTEP Miners during the Conference USA Tournament at Legacy Arena. Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders defeated the UTEP Miners 82-56. Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 10, 2017; Birmingham, AL, USA; Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders bench reacts to his team's play against the UTEP Miners during the Conference USA Tournament at Legacy Arena. Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders defeated the UTEP Miners 82-56. Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports /
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Mar 10, 2017; Birmingham, AL, USA; Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders bench reacts to his team’s play against the UTEP Miners during the Conference USA Tournament at Legacy Arena. Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders defeated the UTEP Miners 82-56. Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 10, 2017; Birmingham, AL, USA; Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders bench reacts to his team’s play against the UTEP Miners during the Conference USA Tournament at Legacy Arena. Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders defeated the UTEP Miners 82-56. Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports /

The first round of the 2017 NCAA Tournament left us with much to talk about, but few major upsets. Could we see more in the second round?

Heading into the 2017 NCAA Tournament, it was expected that there would be few upsets. The teams that many did expect to pull off upsets, however, like Bucknell, Vermont, Florida Gulf Coast, and Winthrop, all failed to exceed expectations.

It wasn’t all chalk. There were a few that did pull off upsets. The Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders “upset” the Minnesota Golden Gophers, but anyone who had watched more than 10 minutes of college basketball this season would have been able to see that coming. The Xavier Musketeers also knocked off a solid Maryland Terrapins’ squad and USC upset SMU, but that is about it for first round upsets – barring something crazy happening tonight.

Whether the trend of higher-seeded Big Ten teams losing is indicative of the conference being underrated or bad first-round matchups remains to be seen, but the trend in the tournament (at least so far) has been the teams that are favored winning when they have to do so.

However, the second round of the 2017 NCAA Tournament is up next. The games are no longer “set” by the Selection Committee based on matchups, storylines, or location, as much as the Selection Committee may say otherwise. The teams that have moved on to the next round have done so of their own accord, so we can expect upsets to start to rise en route to the Sweet 16.

Here are the five second-round games most likely to result in upsets.

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