It would be an understatement to say that the "madness" of March Madness is in full force. From the first 16 seed over 1 seed upset in men's tournament history, nine of the Sweet 16 being five seeds or above and countless unforgettable moments thus far, this years tournament has, without a doubt, been memorable so far.
As we reach the Sweet 16, let's take a look at some winners and losers thus far in the Big Dance.
Winner: Loyola-Chicago and Sister Jean
Who would've thought that a 98-year-old nun would become the face of March Madness. After 11-seed Loyola-Chicago's buzzer beater first round upset over 6-seed Miami, Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, who acts as the Ramblers' team chaplain, captured the hearts of viewers everywhere as she joyously celebrated in her wheelchair.
A former player and coach herself, Sister Jean offers not only prayers, but pregame speeches and even scouting reports of opposing teams. As the entire Ramblers roster towers over here in stature, it is the wit and spirit of Loyola-Chicago's number one fan that shines through.
Sister Jean and the Ramblers have continued their miracle run with another close win over 3 seed Tennessee as Loyola-Chicago guard Clayton Custer hit the game-winning shot with 3.6 seconds remaining.
The Ramblers are scheduled to face off against 7-seed Nevada on Thursday with a shot at the Elite Eight on the line.
Loser: Top seeds in the South and West regions
Talk about a let down for some of the tournament favorites. While the right side of the bracket has stayed mostly safe from monumental upsets (Looking at you, Michigan State), the same cannot be said about the two regions on the bracket's left side.
Don't feel bad about your busted bracket, out of the eight teams seeded 1-4 in the South and West regions, only two, 3-seed Michigan and and 4-seed Gonzaga, managed to get past the tournaments second round.
While disappointing performances from the tournaments top seeds are inevitable, it has certainly been shocking to see the elimination of so many of these "contenders" this early in the tournament.
Besides the obvious Virginia/UMBC upset (we'll get to that later), many traditionally strong programs who filled the Elite Eights and Final Fours of brackets across the country, met their early demise.
4-seed Arizona, a team that featured arguably the most dominant player in college basketball, Deandre Ayton, were a popular pick to make a deep run into the tournament despite the ongoing FBI investigations surrounding the team.
What the Wildcats, and most of the nation didn't account for, is a dominant performance from 13-seed Buffalo. Sean Miller and Arizona were unable to keep up with a second half three-point barrage from the Bulls who shot 15-of-30 from deep on the way to a dominant 89-68 win.
Along with Virginia, Tennessee and Arizona, 1-seed Xavier fell to 9-seed Florida State 75-70 in the second round and a pair of 2-seeds, Cincinnati and UNC, suffered loses in the second round.
The Bearcats of Cincinnati dominated their second round opponent, 7-seed Nevada, for the majority of the game. However, no lead is safe when dynamic twin duo, Caleb and Cody Martin are on the floor. Nevada stormed back from 22 points with 11 minutes remaining to secure a 75-73 victory
Perennial powerhouse North Carolina on the other hand, was dominated from start to finish. The Texas A&M team we all knew they could be finally showed up against the Tar Heels on Sunday.
UNC was simply unable to keep up with the size of the 7-seeded Aggies squad. A&M's athletic big man duo of Robert Williams and Tyler Davis were able to crash the boards with ease and stifle any inside shot from an overwhelmed North Carolina team that many had reaching the final four.
The Aggies held a surprising 14-point lead at halftime and never let up, coasting to a absolutely dominant 86-65 victory with 3-seed Michigan next up on the docket.
Winner: UMBC and their twitter
I could've easily put Virginia on my "losers" list but it feels much more appropriate to recognize their opponent, The University of Maryland Baltimore County, for what they accomplished.
The Retrievers simultaneously made history and destroyed brackets as they became the first 16 seed to defeat a 1 seed in men's tournament history (shoutout to the 1998 Harvard women's basketball team).
Squaring off against number one overall seed and top defense in the country, no one gave the American East Conference champions a chance, but they were ready to shock the world.
The Retrievers were surprisingly able to keep up with the Cavaliers at first, going into halftime tied at 21. However, no one could've predicted what would happen next. UMBC looked like a team of destiny as it absolutely manhandled the coveted Virginia defense making tough shot after tough shot on the way to a 53 point second half explosion.
Led by senior guard, Jairus Lyles' 28 points on 9-of-11 shooting, Ryan Odom's scrappy squad turned the college basketball world upside down with their historic upset.
As all of this was happening, the UMBC twitter account was cracking jokes and proving doubters wrong. Run by UMBC director of multimedia communications in athletics, Zach Seidel, the account which had roughly 5,000 followers before tipoff now boasts approximately 107,000 as Seidel entertained twitter users everywhere with his sharp comedy and savage wit.
The Retrievers were not able to keep their miracle run alive as they hit a roadblock against a tough Kansas State squad that stifled the previously potent UMBC offense to only 43 points in a 50-43 loss.
Loser: The Auburn Tigers
Historic season aside, what a rough final outing for the Tigers. As much as Auburn fans won't want to admit it, the team just hasn't been the same since the gruesome injury to starting forward Anfernee McLemore on Feb. 17.
The Tigers went 3-4 after the injury and limped into the NCAA Tournament as a tired and depleted team. However, the Tigers still earned a 4 seed in the tournament and had enough talent to make a decent run if they got hot.
The opposite happened. Bruce Pearl's squad was able to scrape by 13-seed College of Charleston in the first round 62-58 despite only shooting 35.6 percent from the field and a horrid 5-of-24 from deep.
A win is a win and the victory pitted Auburn against 5-seed Clemson in the second round, it did not go well.
The Tigers of Auburn were clearly out of gas, and it showed. Clemson was able to dominate Auburn the entirety of the game on both sides of the ball cruising to an easy 84-53 victory.
Auburn shot 25.8 percent from the field, were out-rebounded by 18 and generally lacked the energy or effort to keep up with a fresher Clemson squad.
The future of Auburn basketball is certainly bright with Bruce Pearl at the helm but this embarrassing second round performance is something that will haunt fans for years to come.
Loser: The Pac-12
While not as dominant as conferences like the ACC and Big 12, the Pac 12 has always been a solid basketball conference.
In last year's tournament, four teams represented the conference with three of those teams (Arizona, Oregon and UCLA) reaching the Sweet 16. The year before, an impressive seven teams represented the Pac-12 in the tournament.
What was already a seemingly down year for the conference got even worse once the tournament rolled around.
Three Pac-12 teams earned tournament bids led by 4-seed Arizona, who was dismantled by Buffalo in the first round. The other two teams, Arizona State and UCLA were relegated to "first four" play-in games where they both were defeated without reaching the first round.
A conference already in a free fall sent its lowest number of teams to the tournament in years, went 0-3 and fielded one of the biggest disappointments in the tournament this year.
Winner: The fans
Every year, March Madness brings something new. New upsets, cinderella teams, drama and heartbreak, the tournament has it all. For college basketball fans, March is the best time of the year and this year is no exception.
Not only did we get to see history being made, a majority of the games have came down to the wire and have been entertaining from start to finish.
Two major comebacks from an underrated Nevada squad, last second heroics from Loyola's Clayton Custer and Michigan's Jordan Poole and dominant performances like Mikal Bridges' second half outburst against Alabama have been commonplace in this years tournament which without a doubt makes it one of the best in recent memory.
Although it is understandable that many fans will be upset about disappointing performances from their favorite teams or the inevitable busting of their brackets that they put time and effort to create, that's what makes March Madness so great.
You never know what you're going to get when the tournament rolls around but you can count on countless hours of entertaining basketball so in that way, even though the players are playing their hearts out for their respective universities, the fans are the real winners here.
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