Five Takeaways From the First Weekend of the 2024 NCAA Tournament

The first weekend of this year’s NCAA tournament is in the rearview window and it was a wild ride. The first two rounds of the Big Dance featured upsets, buzzer-beaters, close calls and three overtime games. Zooming back from the action shows many of the top contenders survived and advanced, setting up another excellent weekend of basketball. But before we get there, let’s look back at five takeaways.

It’s UConn vs. the FieldUConn steamrolled its way through the first two rounds of the tournament. The No. 1 overall seed and defending national champs looked the part by dismantling No. 16 seed Stetson and hammering No. 9 seed Northwestern. The Huskies led the Hatters 52-19 at halftime, and were up on the Wildcats 40-18 at the break. In both games they appeared to take their foot off the gas to cruise through the final 20 minutes.

Dan Hurley’s team is hitting its stride and is getting contributions from up and down the lineup. Center Donovan Clingan was excellent in the opening weekend. He scored 19 points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished out four assists in the First Round, then racked up 14 points, 14 rebounds and eight blocks against Northwestern. UConn’s two All-Big East first team guards Tristan Newton and Cam Spencer have been steady as well. Newton had 20 points, 10 assists and three rebounds in the Second Round, while Spencer averaged 13 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.0 steals over the weekend.

The Huskies have barely broken a sweat and look like the best team in the tournament to this point. They’re exactly where they need to be as they roll into the Sweet 16 and prepare for a national championship game rematch against San Diego State.

Major Conferences Rule the RoostOf the 16 teams to reach the tournament’s second weekend, 14 come from Power 6 conferences. The other two? Gonzaga and San Diego State, who each boast a national title game appearance in the last three years. Both programs are college basketball powers and mid-majors in name only.

The Big East has three teams among the final 16 and its representatives boast a 6-0 record so far. It appears the conference was better than the selection committee reckoned — somewhere Rick Pitino is screaming into the void. The ACC has four teams in, while the Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC each have two. Arizona stands alone for the Pac-12, proving the conference isn’t quite dead yet.

Cinderella left the ball early this year, but that may mean we get a phenomenal second weekend. The competition should be fierce, with a number of top teams still standing. This is only the fifth time since the tournament expanded to 64 teams that all of the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds reached the Sweet 16. And it has only happened twice since 1995. Twelve of the top 14 teams in the NET ratings are still alive. That should lead to some incredible basketball games.

NC State’s Run Is RemarkableNC State did it again. The Wolfpack completed an incredible stretch of basketball, winning seven games in 12 days to reach the Sweet 16. On March 9, the they finished the regular season having lost four straight games and seven of nine. They were 17-14 (9-11 in conference), nowhere near the bubble and head coach Kevin Keatts’ seat was getting hot. Then something changed.

NC State’s postseason run began as the No. 10 seed in the ACC tournament, which it had to win to reach the Big Dance. That’s just what the Wolfpack did, reeling off five wins in five days to be earn an automatic bid and the No. 11 seed in the South Region. Then they upset No. 6 seed Texas Tech in the First Round and survived an overtime battle with No. 14 seed Oakland in the Second Round.

NC State will get nearly a full week off and then face No. 2 seed Marquette on Friday in Dallas. No one should be counting the Wolfpack out now.

Put Ken Pomeroy on the Selection CommitteeKen Pomeroy’s metrics are having a moment in this year’s tournament. KenPom’s pre-tournament ratings have been eerily accurate this season, as 12 of his top 13 are in the Sweet 16, and 14 of his top 21 made it. The only outliers were No. 35 Clemson and No. 58 NC State.

The selection committee got heat for some of its decisions and seeding this year. The committee was certainly off on some things. Duke is the No. 4 seed in the South Region while Pomeroy had the Blue Devils as the eighth team overall in his pre-tournament rankings. He looks to have been correct as they have cruised through the first two rounds. Gonzaga was 15th in Pomeroy’s metrics but got a No. 5 seed in the Midwest Region. Kansas (22nd on KenPom) got the No. 4 seed, and the Zags torched the Jayhawks 89-68 in the Second Round. Those are just two examples, but overall, KenPom’s ratings have been right more often than they have been wrong.

Maybe it’s time to bring Pomeroy in on the selection process.

The Tournament Doesn’t Need to Be “Fixed”Entering this year’s postseason there was a lot of chatter from those in power concerning ways to “fix” the NCAA tournament. Several terrible ideas were floated, like expanding the field, or eliminating automatic bids for conference champions. All have the same motive, which is cramming more middling Power 6 conference teams into the field. There would be one motivating factor for doing so: greed.

Yes the NCAA’s power players would be completely fine with robbing viewers of the magic small conference teams bring just to steer more cash into their own pockets. It’s as if they’ve been detached from real fans for so long they fundamentally don’t understand what makes their product special. The best moment of the 2024 tournament so far was Oakland’s improbable upset of Kentucky. Watching Jack Gohlke — a bench player from the Horizon League — drop 32 points and 10 three-pointers on a blueblood squad littered with five stars was astonishing. His performance and Oakland’s upset win is exactly what March Madness is all about.

The only adjustment the NCAA should make to the tournament is giving conference champions a spot in the field of 64. If a team earns an automatic bid it shouldn’t have to slog through a First Four game in Dayton. Leave those for the last at-large teams to make the tournament. Other than that, leave the best thing in all of sports alone.

Ryan Phillips is a senior writer at The Big Lead.