Simulation Sunday: March Madness would have had more than One Shining Moment, SportsLine simulation shows

The “One particular Shining Second” video clip adhering to Dayton’s countrywide championship in Atlanta on April six may well have revealed Richmond players dashing the court docket after the No. 11 seed Spiders knocked off defending countrywide champion Virginia in a first-spherical NCAA Event video game.

It may well have featured footage of Penn Condition soccer mentor James Franklin tackling the Nittany Lions’ mascot in celebration as the school’s basketball method gained its first NCAA Event video game due to the fact 2001 above a feisty Stephen F. Austin workforce.

And can you imagine the variety of participate in that BYU mentor Mark Pope would have gotten as he led the Cougars to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time due to the fact 2011? Pope experienced presently become a enthusiast favourite in his first year at BYU.

But he may perhaps have become a countrywide star — along with his greatest participant Yoeli Childs — if the NCAA Event experienced absent in accordance to a Sportsline simulation conducted working with the groups who built the subject in CBS Sports Bracketology skilled Jerry Palm’s projection.

Even without having the incalculable randomness that contributes to upsets and a lot of of the factors that make March Madness great, the bracket simulation even now exposed prospective Cinderellas and some storylines that may well have captivated college basketball above the coming weeks if the match experienced continued as scheduled.

Amongst them was No. six seed BYU beating No. 3 seed Seton Corridor to make the Sweet Sixteen. But topping the listing would have been a countrywide championship for Dayton, a workforce that began the year unranked and picked to complete 3rd in the Atlantic ten. The Flyers, led by Obi Toppin, tore by way of the simulated bracket, beating blue-bloods these kinds of as Louisville, Michigan Condition, Duke and Gonzaga on their way to the hypothetical title.

But they have been not the only A-ten workforce that fared very well in the simulation. Richmond, led by 15th-calendar year mentor Chris Moore, upset Virginia in a simulated first-spherical video game played in the South Area. Can you imagine the jubilation the Spiders would have felt to get a video game after sneaking into the sixty eight-workforce subject as a single of Palm’s Previous 4 In?

On the flip aspect, these kinds of a reduction would have been crushing for the Cavaliers, who closed the normal year with 11 wins in 12 games to arise as a sleeper candidate to make an additional Ultimate 4. Instead, the simulated bracket left UVA nursing the wounds of an upset reduction in the first-spherical for the 2nd time in a few a long time.

Fortunately for mentor Tony Bennett and the Cavaliers, the fact is that UVA will stay the past workforce to hoist a countrywide championship trophy in college basketball until eventually the 2021 NCAA Event concludes above a calendar year from now.

Amongst past season’s Ultimate 4 groups, the Cavaliers have been not by itself in their struggles in the simulated bracket. Texas Tech did not make the simulated subject, Auburn lost in the 2nd spherical as a No. 5 seed and Michigan Condition came a video game small of returning to the Ultimate 4. 

The Spartans did beat bigger seeded Villanova in the Sweet Sixteen of the simulation, nevertheless, and it is really a very good matter for the Huge 10 that they did. A league that was praised all year for its depth and competitiveness landed ten groups in the simulated subject. But only Michigan Condition was left by the Elite Eight, even with Maryland becoming a member of the Spartans as a No. 3 seed.

Penn Condition would have occur absent from the Huge Dance with a exclusive minute, although. The Nittany Lions, a projected No. 5 seed, have absent 19 a long time without having an NCAA Event get. That streak would have ended in the simulation with the Nittany Lions knocking off Stephen F. Austin and advancing to participate in Oregon in the 2nd spherical.

The upsets did not occur in abundance with the simulation, and maybe that really should be a reminder of what factors may well have been like if the NCAA experienced trapped with its small-lived plan to participate in the match without having enthusiasts. How could a decrease seeded workforce with significantly less depth be expected to retain the energy required to knock off an elite workforce for an full video game without having a crowd concerned? It’s possible it would have occurred once in a while. But apart from Richmond’s get above Virginia, the only other first-spherical upsets have been No. ten seed LSU beating Providence and No. nine seeds Florida, Arizona and Colorado winning their first-spherical games.

All those results would have been regarded as a beneficial for the Pac-12, which put just a few groups in the NCAA Event subject every single of the past two a long time. In the simulation, the league obtained 6 bids this year with 4 groups even now standing in the 2nd spherical and Oregon advancing to the Sweet Sixteen.

Finally, the simulation projected a Ultimate 4 consisting of two No. 1 seeds (Dayton and Gonzaga), a No. two seed (Florida Condition) and a No. 3 seed (Duke). For the ACC, landing two groups in the Ultimate 4 would have been a coup after a down year that saw just 4 groups from the league make the projected subject.

But in the conclusion, the simulation projected Dayton would have been the first countrywide champion from a mid-main league due to the fact UNLV in 1990.

And the footage from that operate would have built for a great rendition of “One particular Shining Second.”