NCAA Tournament 2021: Biggest winners and losers through first 2 rounds

Coming into this year’s NCAA Tournament, we honestly had no idea what would happen. Just the week prior, we had to deal with several programs having to lead their respective conference tournaments, most notably the Duke Blue Devils, Virginia Cavaliers, and Louisville Cardinals.

Even after Selection Sunday, it still wasn’t a guarantee that things would go slowly in the Indianapolis area bubble where the tournament is being held. We’ve had two sad moments, where a group of referees had to leave due to a positive covid test, while the VCU Rams were forced to depart after having covid issues of their own, allowing Oregon to move on to the Round of 32 without stepping on the court.

But other than that, we’ve been able to experience a great event, filled with numerous upsets. If you combine the seed totals of all Sweet 16 participants, this is by far the highest combined number, with nine of the 16 teams remaining all at least a 5 seed or lower, including four double-digit seeds.

Between the upsets, heartbreaking and heartwarming moments, we saw plenty of storylines and news in the first four days of the 2021 NCAA Tournament. And hopefully, as long as things continue to go smoothly, we won’t have to worry about any potential interruptions off the court.

For this piece, I’ll be taking a look at the biggest winners and losers from the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. This will focus solely on what happened on the court, and who ultimately won or lost.