The rash of early upsets hasn't gone down as expected through the unusually mellow first two days of action. In fact, not even as much as a single No. 5 seed has lost thus far in 32 tournament games. If you took the safe route and went with all the favorites in your office pool, you're sitting pretty right now.
The only significant upsets (we're not counting the three wins by the No. 9 seeds) are a pair of No. 6 seeds falling; Duke to VCU on Thursday and Notre Dame to Winthrop on Friday afternoon.
There's always a No. 2 or No. 3 seed falling. A year ago, seven teams seeded No. 10 or lower all managed upsets — including No. 14 Northwestern State's win over Iowa. In 2005, No. 14 Bucknell knocked off No. 3 Kansas and No. 13 Vermont pulled the unlikely upset over No. 4 Syracuse.
While the last two days have made for a lackluster start to the Big Dance, it should provide plenty of intriguing heavyweight matchups down the line.
Now it's going to start to get interesting.
Gone are the Cinderellas that almost always win a couple of games and then fizzle and get blown out in the Sweet 16. Now we're due for some thrillers — buzzer-beaters with the big boys going up against one another.
Who really wants to see Belmont, anyway? Sure, everyone would love to pull for a guy named Boomer Herndon. But let's face it: There's no way that Belmont is making a legitimate run to the Final Four. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi is a heck of a story — a team in its first year in the Southland Conference that is located on an island. However, no one really wants to watch the Islanders for more than a couple hours.
There will still be Winthrop to cheer for if you like the dogs. Nick Fazekas and Nevada will still be a Cinderella story if they can get to Atlanta. Butler, while a No. 5 seed, is still the David to Maryland's Goliath.
Thirteen of the 16 teams playing on Saturday will come from the BCS conferences. The only exceptions are VCU, Xavier and Butler. Twelve of the 16 that suit up on Sunday hail from the major conferences.
That means there are just seven teams left that come from mid-major conferences.
That also means there won't be any freebies for the national title contenders. No free rides. You've got to beat up on another high-major program in order to advance.
It's Kansas against Kentucky on Sunday — perhaps with Tubby Smith's job on the line. Would you have really wanted to watch Rick Pitino's Louisville team rip another sub-par team like Penn apart or go up against a Texas A&M team that should give the Cardinals a run for their money?
I'll take Pitino trying to find a way to stop Acie Law IV any day.
There is still the possibility of Florida vs. Wisconsin; Kansas vs. UCLA or Pittsburgh; North Carolina against Georgetown; and Ohio State going up against Memphis.
How about this potential road for the Jayhawks to the national title — Niagara, Kentucky, Southern Illinois, UCLA, Florida and North Carolina. It could happen.
Admittedly, there haven't been any nails bitten thus far. No sleep lost. The talk around the water cooler wasn't quite what it's been in the past.
Everything hasn't gone according to plan when this is supposed to be the time of unpredictability.
It's not. Yet.