Chalk — If you check what remains of your busted NCAA tournament bracket, you'll notice the residue of chalk.
Chalk - otherwise known as picking favorites - turned out to be the best way to go in what started out as a wild first week of March Madness.
All four top seeds remain.
So do all the No. 3 seeds.
And two No. 2 seeds.
There might be some Cinderfellas left in this dance, but only one, Davidson, has a reasonable chance.
It wouldn't be shocking to see all four top seeds advance to this year's Final Four in San Antonio. Two, Memphis and UCLA, have received major scares and could use them as motivation going into this week's Sweet 16. Another, North Carolina, looks almost untouchable.
Here's a look at how the first two rounds of this year's tournament have played out, and what's ahead in the Sweet 16.
Conference call
For all the criticism the Big East received for getting half of its 16 teams into the tournament, the conference certainly backed up the faith the selection committee showed in it.
Only one team - Connecticut - got knocked out in the first round, and of the three that survived the first week, West Virginia and Villanova proved what kind of quality depth the conference possesses.
"Playing in the Big East tournament makes every tournament seem like nothing to you really," the Mountaineers' Joe Alexander said after No. 7 seed West Virginia upset No. 2 seed Duke in Washington on Saturday. "Playing in the Big East gets you tougher ... there's nothing that you're not ready to face."
The Big East, which also had Louisville make it through the first week, is one of two leagues to get three teams into the Sweet 16, along with the Pacific-10.
The Atlantic Coast Conference has only one of four left, North Carolina.
Bruins can cruise
While UCLA needed some late heroics from Kevin Love and Darren Collison to survive a second-round scare from No. 9 seed Texas A&M in Anaheim, Calif., on Saturday night, the road to a third straight Final Four certainly appears to be less rigorous for the Bruins than the other top seeds.
With both Duke and No. 4 seed Connecticut out of the way, the Bruins will face No. 12 seed Western Kentucky in Thursday's semifinals in Phoenix. If UCLA wins, it appears that No. 3 seed Xavier would be a much tougher out than West Virginia in the regional final.
According to UCLA coach Ben Howland, it might not matter given his team's collective confidence.
