2021 March Madness: 8 biggest takeaways from Championship Week
Championship week in March Madness never disappoints but this year we really saw some incredible action in the conference tournaments. With all the upsets and close games, you can’t say that college basketball didn’t bring the drama this week. As Selection Sunday gets underway and we begin to see the field of 68 here are eight takeaways from the past week.
1. The team you thought was gonna win their conference tournament probably didn’t
21 No. 1 seeds were knocked off in the conference tournaments. At least one every day since Saturday, March 6th except for this past Tuesday. Not to mention top-seeded Virginia and North Carolina A&T in the MEAC each withdrew from their conference tournaments due to COVID.
# of 1 seeds eliminated: Team(s) eliminated: Date
5: Nicholls State, Western KY, Prairie View, Wichita State, Michigan – Sat 3/13
6: Oregon, Southern Utah, Baylor, Coppin State, Toledo, LA Tech – Fri 3/12
1: Villanova Thur 3/11
1: Siena Wed 3/10
0: n/a Tue 3/9
2: SD State, Georgia State Mon 3/8
1: James Madison Sun 3/7
5: Texas State, Belmont, UMBC, Wagner, Navy Sat 3/6
As you can see this is not just all mid-majors but includes some national front runners like Baylor and Michigan. Teams like Wichita State and Western Kentucky had to sweat out Selection Sunday on the bubble.
2. COVID can end your championship week and potentially your season
SAD NEWS: We will not continue competing in the 2021 ACC Tournament due to our school’s and conference’s health/safety protocols. The determination was made following the positive COVID-19 test for a member of our program’s Tier 1 personnel after Wednesday’s game.
— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) March 11, 2021
Virginia, Kansas, Duke, NC A&T, and FIU either were forced or decided on their own to withdraw from their conference tournaments this week for having players or personnel test positive for COVID. Virginia and Kansas felt robbed of an opportunity to win a conference championship but are still expected to receive and accept tournament bids while Duke went on to announce that this would be the end of their season.
Does this mean Duke would turn down a bid or a spot as a covid reserve team in the tournament? Duke’s win over Louisville got them into some bubble talk before the news came out the next day.
Top seed NC A&T in the MEAC will likely see their season end to this. FIU didn’t have a great season in the Conference USA but wouldn’t even have the chance last week to make a bid stealing cinderella run as we saw from a few other teams.