NCAA Basketball: Defense is the name of the game in the Sweet Sixteen

We have made it through the first weekend of the NCAA Basketball Tournament and the field of 68 has been whittled down to the Sweet 16. There has been plenty of storylines, headlined by No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson shocking No. 1 Purdue becoming only the 2nd No. 16 seed to defeat a No. 1 seed on the men’s side in tournament history.

There is also Ivy League representative Princeton who has made their way to Louisville as a No. 15 seed after upsetting a tournament favorite Arizona in the first round and the Missouri Tigers in the second. Also gone are defending champ Kansas who was dispatched by Arkansas in the 2nd round, as are five of the Big 12’s seven entrants.

These are just some of the storylines from the tournament’s first weekend and now it is time to look ahead to the second weekend and the road to the Final Four which begins on Thursday. When we look ahead to the next round there are intriguing matchups, headlined for me by No. 1 Alabama taking on No. 5 San Diego State in the South region. A big reason this matchup is the top game of the Sweet Sixteen is that it illustrates a huge theme that runs throughout the round, defense.

They say defense travels and come Thursday it will have traveled to Louisville, Kansas City, Las Vegas, and New York. Let’s look at how defense has become a recurring theme for most of the 16 teams left with hopes of a national championship.