Why a Cinderella is so hard to find this NCAA Tournament

Before we begin to unpack the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, it’s important that we all agree on one thing: Just because there’s a No. 11 next to the Texas Longhorns does not mean we are talking about some plucky underdog making the Sweet 16.

“We’re all adults here,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said moments after losing to Texas in the second round. “That is not a Cinderella team. That’s a really talented basketball team with a really, really, really good coach that has incredible resources and has a great history of doing great things in the Tournament. So, that’s just an 11-seed that had some tough losses during the year.”

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Preach. A double-digit seed that comes from one of the richest athletic departments in the country is a far cry from the teams we typically discuss when we talk about unlikely March runs.

Usually, we’re talking about mid-major teams — teams such as Saint Peter’s or Florida Gulf Coast. Mercer and Lehigh knocking off Duke. UMBC and Fairleigh Dickinson taking out No. 1 seeds. Often times, we’re talking about teams that had to win their conference tournaments to earn auto-bids to the big dance because there was no other way in, but occasionally it’s a team like Miami (Ohio) that sneaks into the field as an at-large. As RedHawks coach Travis Steele has explained, that path is becoming more and more difficult to reliably follow, with high-major teams unwilling to schedule teams like his on an annual basis.

We’re just three years removed from Florida Atlantic’s run to the Final Four, but Cinderellas feel farther than ever from the current state of this tournament. The 11th-ranked Longhorns are the only double-digit seed through to the Sweet 16. VCU (the No. 11 seed in the South Region) and High Point (the No. 12 in the West) pulled off true Cinderella-esque wins in the first round, but neither survived the weekend. Chalk reigned, and with it came all the bluebloods.

Just like last year.

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This year’s NCAA…

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Publish date : 2026-03-23 12:00:00

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