After the first few rounds of action from the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments, the madness of March certainly didn’t shy away this year with numerous upsets on both sides. A historic upset that sent shockwaves around the sports world disrupted the men’s side, and a late night upset on Sunday ruined many brackets on the women’s side as well. As we head into next weekend with the sweet sixteen and elite eight, it can be said that no team is safe at this point, and all of the top teams should be careful with the lower seeds.

Starting with the men’s tournament, the biggest upset by far was the sixteen seed, Fairleigh Dickinson University, upsetting the one seed, Purdue University, in the first round. With the few brackets that were remaining, they were certainly busted with this matchup. The other primary upsets that took place was the thirteen seed, Furman University, who got a clutch three pointer with mere seconds to go over the four seed, Virginia University, who has been on the receiving end of many upsets over the past five years. Also, the story of the tournament is the fifteen seed, Princeton University, who upset both number two seed, Arizona University, and the seven seed, University of Missouri, to reach the sweet sixteen. It’s the second year in a row that a fifteen seed has reached the sweet sixteen. This Princeton team was dangerous from the start, and they’ve shown that with back to back upsets. Lastly, the powerhouse high ranking teams like Alabama, Houston, UCLA, and Texas all remain.

In the women’s tournament, there have been fewer upsets, but there has been no shortage of overcoming deficits. Baylor University came back from an eighteen point deficit to take down Alabama and Miami University came back from seventeen points down to defeat Oklahoma State University. Those were the two major comebacks, but the biggest upset of the tournament had to be the eight seed, Mississippi University, stunning the one seed, Stanford University. It was an upset that little to no one even thought would happen. The other notable upsets of conference champions were, Florida Gulf Coast University, taking down the five seed and PAC 12 champions, Washington State University, and the fellow twelve seed, Toledo University, who took out the five seed and Big 12 champions, Iowa State University. While there might not have been a large amount of upsets on the women’s side, the stars of the tournament so far have easily been Caitlyn Clark (Iowa), Angel Reese (LSU), and Maddy Siegrist (Villanova). These players have played their hearts out, and have helped their teams progress throughout the chaos of March.

Looking ahead to the sweet sixteen, almost every matchup on the men’s side could go either way, with all sixteen teams playing incredibly well so far. Though this isn’t by any means a prediction, the high seeded teams that have a chance of going out earlier than expected includes: UCLA who takes on Gonzaga, Texas who takes on Xavier, and Kansas State who faces off against Michigan State. However, it would be silly to predict these games now considering a million different things could happen between now and the final buzzer. In the women’s tournament, the top teams that should be on upset alert include: Iowa who will face either Colorado or Duke, Utah who faces the ever dangerous threat of LSU, and Virginia Tech who will face off against either Toledo or Tennessee. 

Overall, predicting where this tournament will head is one of the hardest things to predict in sports. With every bracket totally busted by this point, any team and any player can truly take over this tournament. The men’s sweet sixteen begins on Thursday with the elite eight concluding on Sunday, and the women’s sweet sixteen begins on Friday and ends on Monday. Whatever ends up happening it is important to relish this time as a sports fan, because after all it is the best time of the year.