A flurry of upsets, an upside down-inside out San Antonio regional, and Big East teams only able to beat each other — welcome to the Sweet 16, where anything is possible — including an 11 or 12 seed getting to the, gasp, Final Four?

SCOTT JACOBS

If you had one 12 seed, two 11 seeds, a 10, and an 8 in your Sweet Sixteen, then you my friend are a genius.  Or you’re completely crazy.  Because anyone who had 5 of the 16 teams to advance being 8 seeds or lower must have been on some kind of crack or highly inebriated. You choose.

The Big East brought 11 of the 68 schools to the dance, and within 4 days was left crying and bleeding, 9 teams gone, just 2 left.  The ACC which barely eeked out 4 teams in a mediocre year, boasts 3 teams which paces the field. Maybe Va Tech had a gripe afterall?

Florida (UF, FSU), North Carolina (UNC, Duke), and Virginia (VCU, Richmond) are bringing 2 teams each to the Sweet 16.  Texas none, California one.

While Duke is going to the Sweet 16 for the 20th time in the last 26 years (mind blowing), San Diego State is showing up to the second weekend for the first time (Steve Fisher).  Kentucky’s been to 6 Sweet 16’s since 2001,which by my count is over half the decade.  Richmond is making their first trip to the second weekend for the first time since 1988.  They’d only even been to 8 tourneys before this run.

UF won two national championships while FSU went 13 years (and no longer counting) to get a tourney win.  Two tourney victories takes you all the way back to 1993, and the days of Sam Cassell, Bob Sura, and those hideous gold jerseys. In that span the Tar Heels made the Sweet 16 nine times, including not one, not two, but 3 national championships.  That gap in time — a cool 18 years — is the same number of Final Fours that the Tar Heels have participated in.

Arizona was here just a few years ago.  But they came in as the bumbling, overmatched 12 seed.  The only team in 2009 higher than a 5 seed to make the second weekend.  This year they’re a 5, with a budding star in Derrick Williams and a team that just reeks of clutch. Butler was in the national championship last year.  They nearly won it too.  Wisconsin was here in 2008.  They fell that year to Davidson, the scrappy team that nearly made it to the final four.  This year’s Davidson? It might be VCU, which has not only beat, but they’ve pounded 3 BCS conference schools — USC, Georgetown, and Purdue — en route to the only 3-0 tourney resume.

So what does this all mean?

It means that we’ve got a colorful mix of everything sprinkled into this year’s Sweet 16 batter. The usual suspects are here (UNC, Duke, Kansas, Kentucky) but so are the new kids on the block (VCU, FSU, Richmond).  We’ve got the nation’s leading scorer (Jimmer)! and the nation’s best defensive team (FSU).  The star whose health and progress could change everything (Kyrie Irving) and the team that just won’t die (Butler, I’m looking at you).  UConn is out to prove that they don’t know how to lose tournament games of any kind, while San Diego State is out to prove that yes, they are this good.

Ohio State is sheer power, with their pasting of 2006 tourney darling George Mason proof of that.  Marquette hasn’t danced this far since D-Wade.

Just three of eight matchups held serve (3. UConn – 2. San Diego St./ 3. BYU – 2. UF, and / 4. Kentucky-1. Ohio State) with the other ones all over the map.  Literally.  Duke may be the one seed in the West, but when they take on 5 seed Arizona in Anaheim they’ll be 2515 miles away from Durham.  Newark gets to host a regional with no northeast teams, and San Antonio’s regional has 3 double digit seeds and Kansas.  The Southeast may have the 2 most intriguing games of any region with seeds 2,3, and 4, and Butler.

But that’s the beauty of March Madness.  You never know what you’re going to get.  Anyone who had FSU throttling Notre Dame (a team many argued should be a 1 seed) in Chicago in what basically amounted to a home game for the Irish, was probably joking.  Seriously, even FSU was partying like they’d just won the national championship after advancing to the Sweet 16.

4 of the 16 don’t compete in college football’s FBS (Butler, VCU, Richmond, and Marquette) while 3 of the 16 played in BCS games (UConn, Ohio State, and Wisconsin).  This year’s champion in football was one of the worst teams in basketball.  Though they did beat FSU.  Who beat Duke, which took 2 of  3 from UNC, which could get a fourth rematch if both teams can win 2 more games.

It’s crazy folks.  BYU and UF played a wild double OT thriller in the first round last year.  This year they face off with an Elite 8 berth on the line.

It’s all further proof that the NCAA Tournament is one giant crapshoot.  This year with what appeared to be a top heavy field, upsets ravaged the new format, and left us with a plethora of new faces and fascinating story lines.  It could have been even wilder.  Michigan was one floater away from taking Duke to OT.  Washington had UNC right where they wanted them and then they couldn’t close. We could have had– if you can believe it– the Huskies and Wolverines in this class, instead of UNC and Duke.

But we also could have had Pitt, Texas, and Syracuse if not for some wild finishes.  That’s what makes this time of year so maddening.  So wild.  So unpredictable.  In a best of 7 series Morehead State doesn’t beat Lousiville.  But in a one game winner take all, all it takes is one game to do the unthinkable.

But college hoops is a game of inches, and this NCAA tourney has proven to be a game of seconds.

We’re 1/3 of our way through a frantic dance.  What could the other 2/3 possibly have in store?

What’s more?  Either VCU or FSU will advance to the Elite Eight.  Why? Because they play each other. Which leads to this…

We are guaranteed to have at least a 4 seed and a 10 or 11 seed in the Elite Eight.  That much we know.  And if you had that in your bracket before we started all this madness, then I commend you.

Because I didn’t.

Photo: Reuters

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