Rank | Team | Reason |
---|---|---|
1 | Villanova | Lacked leadership and certainly not the hardest working team, but they had a lot of natural talent and in the end that talent prevailed. |
2 | North Carolina | The Heels were incredible from beyond the arc all season until the tournament. It's a shame they couldn't keep it up. |
3 | Kansas | Very poorly-coached team. If they had a coach like Bruce Weber maybe the Jayhawks could've won their region. |
4 | Oklahoma | Lacked star-power. If they had one true scorer I think they could've knocked off Villanova. |
5 | Oregon | Everybody was familiar with the Ducks when the tournament started, and everyone thought they were the best #1 seed. Apparently not. |
6 | Virginia | UVA played up-tempo all season. It ended up not being sustainable in the tournament. |
7 | Texas A&M | A&M really choked down the stretch in the round of 32. One of the most epic collapses ever. A&M fans are probably very embarrassed. |
8 | Louisville | They were undefeated in the 2016 NCAA tournament. |
9 | Indiana | Indiana tends to get up for big games. Unfortunately they only played no-name schools. They would have fared better against a powerhouse. |
10 | Michigan State | Death. Taxes. Izzo in March. |
11 | Iowa State | Maybe it's time for a coaching change in Ames. Some new blood might help. Prohm has been there seemingly forever. |
12 | Duke | Duke had too much depth. The Blue Devil coaching staff needs to learn to stick with a smaller rotation. |
13 | Kentucky | Lacked a decent PG, but otherwise a very good senior-laden team. |
14 | Xavier | They played in a balanced conference that lacked strength at the top. That hurt Xavier big time. |
15 | Miami (FL) | Miami had a very easy draw. Playing an 11-seed in the second round is too easy. |
16 | West Virginia | West Virginia would've been better off speeding up the tempo, but for some reason Huggins stuck with his traditional conservative defense. |
17 | Wichita State | Lacked talent at guard. Fortunately both of their starting guards graduate. Good riddance. |
18 | Notre Dame | Incredible defensive team that couldn't seem to get a bucket. Extremely low-scoring games all year. |
19 | Syracuse | Young up-and-coming head coach Jim Boeheim did a good job. The Orange simply couldn't guard anyone, however. |
20 | Utah | The Utes lacked a star post player. That was their missing piece all season. |
21 | Maryland | Maryland's guards were not scoring threats, which ruined the Terps' postseason hopes. |
22 | California | No real talent on this team. Definitely overachieved with a lot of 2-star players. |
23 | Butler | Butler has no tournament history. Players, coaches, even administration seemed to suffer from stage fright. |
24 | Wisconsin | Simply not enough change for this team. Same roster as last year, same results -- no championship. |
25 | UConn | Came from such a strong conference. It really beat them up. The Huskies were too tired by the time the tournament rolled around. |