Before 2012, 2-seeds went 10 straight years without losing in the First Round.  In the ten tournaments since that streak, we’ve seen six 2-seeds drop their first game.  Is this the start of a new trend?  Or a weird statistical anomaly?  Who knows?  Let’s see what happens this year!

Overall Performance

• 138 (of 148) advanced to the Second Round
• 93 went on to the Sweet 16
• 67 reached the Elite 8
• 31 reached the Final 4
• 13 made the championship game
• 5 won the tournament

Performance Over the Last 10 Years

• 34 (of 40) advanced to the Second Round
• 23 went on to the Sweet 16
• 17 reached the Elite 8
• 9 reached the Final 4
• 2 made it to the championship game, but only one of them won it

Bracket Performance History and Advice

• First Round:  Only 10 (out of 148) 2-seeds have lost in the First Round.  Interestingly, 6 of those upsets happened within the last 10 tournaments.  It’s still probably too rare of an occurrence to take the risk of picking an upset here.
• Second Round:  93% of 2’s reach the Second Round.  Only about 2/3 of them advance further.
• Sweet 16:  63% of 2’s reach this round.  There have only been two tournaments where none of the 2-seeds advanced past the Sweet 16.
• Elite 8:  45% of 2’s reach this round.
• Final 4:  21% of 2’s reach this round. 31 2-seeds have reached the Final 4, and 13 wound up advancing to the Final.
• Final:  Of the 13 2-seeds to reach the Final, 5 of them won.

Record in the Second Round

• vs 7-seeds:  59-26
• vs 10-seeds:  34-19

Feats of Strength

• 2016 Villanova was the last team to win the tournament as a 2-seed.
• The previous 2-seed winner was Connecticut, 12 years earlier, in 2004.
• All four 2-seeds advanced to the Elite 8 twice:
  • 1995 – Massachusetts, Connecticut, North Carolina, and Arkansas
  • 1996 – Georgetown, Wake Forest, Cincinnati, and Kansas