Florida Atlantic

These Owls epitomize the vagaries of March. They should have been seeded higher after a 31–3 season, drew a brutal opponent in similarly underseeded Memphis, but survived the Tigers in the final seconds. Then they nearly lost to No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson. Bottom line: FAU has its first two NCAA tournament wins in school history and is the first Conference USA team to get this far since 2009.

Under coach Dusty May, FAU is deep and fast and aggressive, playing at a quick tempo and launching a lot of threes (59 in two games, most of any team still playing). The Owls beat Memphis with balance and beat FDU with one of the best individual NCAA tourney performances in recent years: Johnell Davis’s 29 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and five steals in 34 minutes.