A Cinderella-less Sweet 16

Good morning! Sorry to Big East fans and mid-major conferences. This wasn’t your March.

Let's get to Sunday’s news.

Maryland’s buzzer-beating relief + an historic SEC

We’d gone nearly two years without a true NCAA Tournament buzzer beater (Lamont Butler’s Final Four winner in 2023), so seeing Derik Queen’s game-winner vs. Colorado State was not only a fantastic moment, but an overdue one.

And to think, it was just seconds after it seemed like Jalen Lake earned a March moment for himself. Instead, Queen sent the Terps to their first Sweet 16 since 2016, and gave coach Kevin Willard his first-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament’s second weekend. Did Queen travel? Maybe if it was 2004.

Either way, hitting a true buzzer-beater is a great omen for the Terps.

Other things to know from the weekend:

• The SEC caught some grief for its Round of 64 record (9-5), but it fared just fine on Saturday and Sunday. It broke the ACC’s record for number of teams in the Sweet 16 (7), and is 15-7 through two rounds (including the First Four). And it’s not just about volume, either. It’s playing up to its seed expectation.

• It’s the first NCAA tourney without an 11 seed (or worse) in the Sweet 16 since 2007. That means it’s all power conference teams still playing: ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and SEC.

• The Big 12 and Big Ten each have four teams still playing. Duke is all alone from the ACC.

• Also worth noting: 11 of the teams still playing were ranked in the preseason Top 25. The exceptions: Michigan State, Michigan, Maryland, Texas Tech and BYU.

• The coaching carousel delivered for Arkansas, BYU, Kentucky, and Michigan. All four are in the Sweet 16 under first-year coaches. (The Cats did it without ANY returning points.)

1. West Region: Florida dethrones UConn, Terps survive

It’d been nearly two years since an NCAA tourney buzzer beater. It’d been ever longer since UConn lost. Both things happened on Sunday.

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