The opening weekend to this year's edition of March Madness wasn't exactly stress-free for the No. 1 seeds. Gonzaga, Kansas, and Arizona were forced to embrace the "survive and advance" mantra, winning second-round games by single-digits. And the defending national champion, Baylor, suffered an upset loss to North Carolina in overtime, despite a valiant comeback effort.
2008 remains the only year in which all No. 1 seeds appeared in the Final Four. This year, the number could be three, and the past four champions have been No. 1 seeds. But millions of brackets were torn to shreds during the weekend, and there's still a legitimate possibility of additional top-seed upsets when the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds take place.
"Over the years, the compression of college basketball, the delta between the No. 1 team in the nation and the 50th team has definitely continued to compress," former college hoops coach Matt Doherty explained to The DA Show on Monday. "Because of the one-and-dones and some kids not even going to college. And then you have a team like Miami that has a 24-year-old guard in Charlie Moore. Miami's going against an 18-year-old guard.
"That's a huge gap in physicality, mentally. It continues to compress. I know Gonzaga was scared to death that they had to face Memphis, because they were a preseason top-20 team... No, it's not that surprising that [top seeds] are struggling. When would you see UNC as an 8th-seed, Michigan as an 11? There's some really good teams in the lower seedings, that No. 1 seeds are like, 'Woof, that's scary,' to see those guys this early in the tournament."
Gonzaga, the top-overall seed in this year's bracket, is scheduled to face 4th-seeded Arkansas in the West Region semifinals on Thursday night (7 p.m. ET). According to FiveThirtyEight's projections, the title-starved Bulldogs have an 84-percent chance to reach the Elite Eight and a 30-percent chance to claim the championship. As for Kansas and Arizona, their current marks to advance to the Final Four are 57-percent and 28-percent, respectively.
The entire March Madness conversation between Doherty and DA can be accessed in the audio player above.
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