NCAA tournament could have more senior moments than usual

The warmup acts are over, those Tuesday and Wednesday doubleheaders known most recently as the First Four, the play-ins and the despoilers of what once was a perfectly proportioned NCAA tournament bracket.

Now it’s on to the main event, 16 games Thursday and the same Friday.

The games will generate plenty of senior moments, which have dwindled in the recent past as the one-and-dones dominated the landscape. They will produce one three-peat after another — perhaps along with royalties for Pat Riley, if the trademarked term is echoed — as teams have fired away from behind the arc at unprecedented rates this season.

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They will trigger a torrent of B-words allowed on network television — bracket-buster, buzzer-beater, blowout. And they will ignite discussion of the tired parity theme, which might be prevalent among the field’s middle class: In six of the first-round games, the lower seed is favored.

If “One Shining Moment” is not serenading Kansas, North Carolina, Michigan State or one of only a few more nobles at the end of the Big Dance-athon, another B-word will be elicited: bewilderment. The title contenders can be counted on two hands, even by an old Saturday morning cartoon character.

One is Oklahoma, whose probable Wooden Award winner is Chavano Rainer Hield, better known as Buddy. Hield is the season’s face of college hoops. He’s a senior, a class that is often marginalized by freshmen and sophomores in March.

Hield leads the nation in three three-pointers, one of nine seniors among the top 10 in the category. Long-distance attempts have accounted for more than one in every three field-goal tries in 2015-16, a record pace partly attributable to a shot-clock reduction from 35 to 30 seconds.

The second-seeded Sooners open Friday against Cal State Bakersfield, one of four entrants from California. On Thursday, Fresno State, a No. 14 seed, has a comparably daunting task with Utah.

USC, paired Thursday with Providence in an 8-versus-9, is one of the half-dozen underdogs against lower seeds.

California, with its collection of NBA-ready players, gets Hawaii, which is anything but the NCAA’s shining example during the Madness. The Rainbow Warriors go on probation next season for violations under the previous coach’s watch, and they received no favors by drawing a Friday tipoff at what will be 9 a.m. in the Aloha State.

Though a top-seeded team has never lost off the bat, and No. 2s rarely fall, the next few tiers are typically vulnerable. A third seed has been drummed out in the first round of the last three tournaments, which puts Miami (versus Buffalo), Texas A&M (Northern Iowa), West Virginia (Stephen F. Austin) and Utah (Fresno State) on high alert.

A six-year upset streak by the 13s ended in 2013, much to the relief of No. 4 seeds. As for the 5s, many in recent years could have packed lightly for the trip. Until a sweep last season, they were in a 13-15 swoon against 12s.

Add in a .500 win percentage for No. 6 seeds against 11s since 2010, and “parity” will be on a continuous loop.

The premier seeds could linger largely because they are unusually laden with upperclassmen. The leading men for North Carolina (Brice Johnson), Virginia (Malcolm Brogdon), Michigan State (Denzel Valentine) and Kansas (Perry Ellis) are seniors. Villanova starts four upperclassmen, Michigan State three seniors. None lean heavily on freshmen.

If No. 4 Iowa State (Georges Niang) and No. 5 Indiana (Yogi Ferrell) make a deep run, the all-tournament team will be infected with a different sort of senioritis. Do not discount any of the senior-led squads.

Conversely, the customary chatter about players as pro prospects will be somewhat muted. The projected top NBA draft pick, Ben Simmons, is not playing because Louisiana State didn’t make the field. His primary challenger, Brandon Ingram, could be on the first team eliminated Thursday if this substandard Duke edition is not careful against North Carolina Wilmington.

Oregon, with two seniors in the lineup, is feeling less love than the other top-seeded teams, despite accomplishing a Pac-12 Conference regular-season and tournament double and earning the second-highest ranking to Kansas in the widely followed Rating Percentage Index.

The RPI-loved Ducks should not be R.I.P. any time soon. Yet a modest 10-6 record away from their home floor — which throws off opponents with an artistic depiction of a forest — has tempered enthusiasm for them.

Follow Mike Tierney on Twitter @mtierneysports