INSIDE THE GAMES

Wisconsin proves to be the bad seed

Second-seeded Wisconsin’s 74-68 loss to UNLV on Sunday meant yet another year when at least one of the top two seeds in each of the four regions failed to reach the third round.

Since 1985, the top two from each region moved on to the round of 16 only twice, in 1989 and 1995.

Wisconsin is the only one of the 1 and 2 seeds not to advance to the third round. The West Regional, with Kansas, UCLA, Pittsburgh and Southern Illinois, is the only one with the top four seeds still alive.

Conference call

The Atlantic Coast Conference had the most teams in the field of 65 with seven. The Big Ten was one of three leagues with six. They both have just one team left in the third round.

North Carolina, the top seed in the East Regional, is the lone ACC team remaining after Virginia Tech and Virginia lost Sunday in the second round, joining Maryland and Boston College, which lost Saturday, on the sideline. Duke and Georgia Tech didn’t make it out of the first round.

Ohio State, the top seed in the South Regional, is the only Big Ten remaining after Purdue and Wisconsin lost Sunday in the second round, joining Michigan State and Indiana, which lost Saturday, on the sideline. Illinois lost in the first round.

The Southeastern Conference, which started with five teams, and the Pac-10, which started with six, each have three teams still alive. The Big 12, which started with four, and the Big East, which started with six, both have two left.

Defender run

Florida matched the last six defending national champions by advancing to the third round with its 74-67 victory over Purdue.

The last two – North Carolina and Connecticut – both had their runs at a second straight title end in the round of 16.

The three before that – Syracuse, Maryland and Duke – all had their defenses end in the regional finals.

Michigan State, in 2001, was the last national champion to return to the Final Four. The Spartans lost there to Arizona.

The last team to repeat was Duke in 1992.

Shooting comeback

Kevin Kruger’s first NCAA tournament game certainly wasn’t his best, considering he missed all eight of his shots – all 3-pointers – in UNLV’s 67-63 victory over Georgia Tech.

The fifth-year senior, who transferred from Arizona State to play for his father with the Runnin’ Rebels, missed his first three shots Sunday but bounced back to finish 4 for 10 from the field, all but one attempt from beyond the arc, and had 16 points, six rebounds and seven assists in a 74-68 victory over Wisconsin.

Kruger entered the tournament shooting 36.5 percent (74 for 203) from 3-point range.

“I kept telling him, ‘You are going to make some shots,’ ” teammate Wendell White said. “He did. That’s what happened.”

No longer charity case

Memphis came into the NCAA tournament as one of the worst free-throw shooting teams in Division I, shooting 61.3 percent from the line.

In the second-seeded Tigers’ 78-62 victory over Nevada, that stat went out the window as they made 20 of their first 24 on the way to shooting 76.5 percent (26 for 34).

Even Joey Dorsey, who came into the game shooting 46.5 percent (67 for 144), made 4 of 6 on Sunday.