a gleeful NCAA Tournament fact I forgot to point out earllier

There was some basketball snickering when the ACC sent only 4 teams to the NCAA Tournament while the Big East sent 11.

That was over a week ago. In the here and now:

Teams in the NCAA Tournament: Big East - 11 ACC - 4
Teams in the Sweet 16 Big East - 2 ACC - 3


Of all the Big East teams only UConn and Marquette survived the first weekend. In the ACC, UNC, Duke, and Florida State all advanced. Only Clemson lost in the first round, ironically to West Virginia, a Big East team.

I will at least acknowledge that the Big East lost 2 teams due to 2 all Big East matchups in the second round, necessitated by the large number of teams they entered, making it impossible to avoid their conference mates until the Elite Eight, which is the norm. So UConn had to eliminate Cincinnati, and Marquette upset Syracuse.

But still, a bad showing for the Big East. Their #1 seed Pitt was upset by 8 seed Butler in the second round. Their #2 seed Notre Dame was upset by 10 seed Florida State in the second round. 4 seed Louisville suffered the biggest upset of the first round, getting beat by 13 seed Morehead State.