Who’s up and who’s down as the 2021 men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament enters the round of 16:
UP: The Pac-12. When Bill Walton projected five teams from the “conference of champions” to make the Final Four, it seemed ludicrous even beyond the mathematical impossibility.
Nobody was talking about the Pac-12 as the nation’s best hoops league. By acclimation of the hoops talking heads, the Big Ten and the Big 12 were battling for that designation.
Well, lo and behold, so far in the 2021 Big Dance, the left coast is the best coast.
The Pac-12 stands a robust 9-1 after the opening rounds of the NCAA tourney. It has four teams among the 16 remaining.
With USC and Oregon set to face off in the West Region semifinals, the league is guaranteed at least one team in the round of eight.
So strong is the Pac-12 mojo, Mick Cronin — Mick Cronin! — has already coached UCLA to three NCAA tourney wins.
That’s the same Mick Cronin who had coached in 11 prior Big Dances without ever winning three games in one tourney.
For Kentucky Wildcats backers, the MVP of the NCAA Tournament so far is Pac-12 Cinderella Oregon State.
Coach Wayne Tinkle’s Beavers (19-12) had to win the Pac-12 Tournament to make the NCAA tourney.
When OSU did just that, it knocked UK’s intrastate rival, Louisville, from the field of 68.
In the NCAA first round, Oregon State bounced Kentucky’s SEC rival, Tennessee.
When the Beavers upset Oklahoma State and star freshman Cade Cunningham in the round of 32, it sent Oregon State to the sweet 16 for the first time since 1982.
Of the Pac-12’s blow-torching of the NCAA Tournament field, “we’re obviously putting everybody on notice,” Oregon State’s Tinkle said.
DOWN: The Big Ten. For every skeptic who feels the Big Ten is persistently over-hyped, this NCAA tourney has been for you.
The Big Ten got nine teams in the 2021 Big Dance. It had two No. 1 seeds (Michigan, Illinois), two No. 2s (Ohio State and Iowa) and a No. 4 (Purdue).
What has happened since Selection Sunday has been brutal.
Traditional league kingpin Michigan State was bounced by Mick Cronin — Mick Cronin! — in the First Four.
Ohio State was stunned by No. 15 seed Oral Roberts, while Purdue fell to No. 13 seed North Texas.
When the tourney reconvenes with the round of 16, there will be exactly one Big Ten team — Michigan — still playing.
UP: Sister Jean. After engineering a thorough take down of No. 1 seed Illinois in the round of 32, Loyola Coach Porter Moser has the Ramblers two victories from their second Final Four since 2018.
Having been vaccinated against the coronavirus, Loyola’s 101-year-old team chaplain, Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, is back on the trail with the Ramblers for their tourney trek.
Since she became a media darling during Loyola’s run to the 2018 Final Four, Sister Jean has added something new to her arsenal:
The trolling of sitting-at-home hoops powers.
Before March Madness began, Sister Jean pointedly noted “I filled out my bracket. … I don’t see Kentucky any place.”
With Loyola advancing to the round of 16, Sister Jean proclaimed on Twitter “I’m looking at the bracket and I thought we played Duke next, but I can’t find them on here anywhere.”
DOWN: Brad Underwood. In four seasons as Illinois coach, Underwood took the Fighting Illini from 14-18 in 2017-18 to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament this year.
Yet an awful lot of goodwill Underwood had banked probably evaporated with Illinois’ decisive 71-58 round-of-32 loss to intrastate foe Loyola.
UP: Nate Oats. Two wins from the Final Four, the brash second-year Alabama head man and his free-wheeling team would seem to have a chance to use the 2021 NCAA tourney to morph the Crimson Tide into “the new Florida” — an SEC “football school” that becomes a consistent hoops force.
DOWN: Mike White. Fans of the original Florida are growing restive with their head coach after the Gators were bounced from the round of 32 by No. 15 seed Oral Roberts.
In his six seasons since replacing Bill Donovan, White has gotten Florida past the round of 32 once — a 2017 trip to the round of eight.
UP: Gonzaga. Four wins from an undefeated national title, are we watching Mark Few and the unbeaten Zags (28-0) transform into the West Coast version of Duke?
DOWN: Bill Self. If having the Jayhawks in the teeth of a major NCAA investigation were not enough, the veteran KU head man presided over Kansas’ 85-51 thrashing by USC in the round of 32.
The 34-point beating was the third worst in KU basketball history.
“Kansas deserves better,” Self said afterward.
The Jayhawks ended their season 21-9. Kansas gained 12 games on Kentucky (9-16) this year in the men’s college hoops all-time wins battle.
Entering next season, that race will stand: 1. Kentucky 2,327; 2. Kansas 2,323.