The four-day whirlwind of whittling the men's NCAA tournament field from 64 down to 16 is complete.

And, like always, "second-round Sunday" delivered the goods.

Oh, there were some blowouts. Purdue, Duke and San Diego State barely even broke a sweat in securing their spots in the Sweet 16.

But Alabama-Grand Canyon and Houston-Texas A&M more than made up for it with chaos that pretty well defines March Madness.

Who were the biggest winners and losers of the day, though?

Winner: Shaka Smart, Marquette

Thirteen years ago, Shaka Smart and VCU's "HAVOC" took the world by storm, going from First Four to Final Four in the inaugural edition of the 68-team March Madness.

The 33-year-old, second-year head coach seemed destined to become the next big thing in men's college hoops.

However, the NCAA tournament giveth and the NCAA tournament taketh away.

Over the next 12 years, Smart led his teams—be it VCU, Texas or Marquette—to the Dance nine times, but never for very long. After winning five games in his first tourney, he won three games in those nine trips combined, not once reaching the Sweet 16 and getting a Rick Barnes-like reputation for not being able to win in March.

Finally, though, that drought is over after the 81-77 victory over Colorado.

It was a fantastic game, as seems to be the case every time Kevin Harlan is on the mic. (I, too, miss Gus Johnson, but Harlan has been incredible, as always.) Marquette couldn't miss in the first half, but Colorado refused to go away, briefly taking the lead with around 15 minutes remaining and making it a tie game with four minutes to go.

In the end, it was just too much Tyler Kolek.

He missed Marquette's final six games before the tournament with an oblique injury, but it was a small price to pay to have him out there at full strength for 40 minutes against the Buffaloes. Kolek had a handful of ugly turnovers (six in total), but he went for 21 points, 11 assists and five rebounds in leading the Golden Eagles to victory.

Kolek either scored or assisted on every point Marquette scored in the final eight minutes, with the exception of David Joplin's game-sealing free throws. Even on those, though, he kind of got the assist, receiving the inbounds pass and getting loose to drain some clock before Joplin was the one getting tagged in that game of hot potato.

Now, Smart and his "you either love him or hate him" sideline antics will go up against NC State in the Sweet 16.

Loser: Zach Edey Haters (and Utah State Trying to Defend Him)

Every single time Zach Edey is doing his completely unstoppable thing—so, you know, roughly twice a week for the past four months—they come out of the woodwork on social media.

You know who "they" are.

"He's not good, he's just big!"

"He's throwing elbows and committing fouls on every play!"

"Well, maybe if Purdue wasn't playing 8-on-5 all the time..."

It's tiresome, honestly, and comically unoriginal.

Edey is legitimately the most unstoppable force in men's college basketball since Shaquille O'Neal was eviscerating backboards more than three decades ago. But if you mention on social media that it's pretty incredible Edey amassed 21 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and two blocks in the first half against Utah State, get ready for the cacophony of excuse-hurling nonsense that always comes with the territory of complimenting what is going to be the back-to-back National Player of the Year.

Does Edey get away with some fouls? Absolutely. So does every single center in the country while trying to establish position in the post. It just stands out a bit more with Edey because he's 7'4" and the main player your eyes are keyed on every time Purdue has the ball.

If, however, you want a whistle every single time Edey initiates contact in the lane, you better be OK with that becoming a two-way street and opponents running out of players on a regular basis. Because while Edey draws about four times as many fouls as he commits, you know darn well he is actually getting fouled at more like a 10-to-1 ratio, as there is just nothing you can legally do to slow him down.

Two or three years ago, yes, he was more or less "just big." However, he has gotten smarter, better, stronger, more agile and just generally sensational.

Winner: Media in North Carolina's 'Research Triangle'

Chapel Hill's North Carolina Tar Heels and Raleigh's NC State Wolfpack took care of business on second-round Saturday, leaving it up to Durham's Duke Blue Devils on Sunday to ensure a whole heck of a lot of interest in next weekend coming out of the "Research Triangle."

And before it even got to halftime of Duke's matchup with the Dukes of James Madison, it was a foregone conclusion that all three ACC schools would be having a joyous few days of Sweet 16 buildup.

It was a rather merciless drubbing of a Cinderella hopeful. JMU's biggest star, Terrence Edwards Jr., picked up two fouls less than two minutes into the first half, and things spiraled out of control in a hurry.

The Dukes had one of the best three-point defenses in the country heading into the game, but the Blue Devils emphatically changed that in going 14-of-28 from distance. Freshman Jared McCain was unconscious from the perimeter, going 8-of-11 by himself. Tyrese Proctor was also feeling it with four three-pointers.

Eight minutes in, Duke was up by 15.

At halftime, it was 22.

The final margin was 38.

It was every bit the ugly standalone game that the previous Purdue-Utah State game was.

Duke's victory marks the fifth time in tournament history that all three Triangle schools made it at least as far as the Sweet 16.

The last time it happened was in 2015, when Duke won the national championship. Before that was 2005, when UNC won it all. Duke made it to the Final Four when it happened in 1989 and went to the 1986 title game the other time all three lasted at least until the regional semifinals.

So, which one (or ones) will be making it through to Phoenix, too?

Maybe a little Duke-NC State showdown in the Elite Eight?

Loser: The 'MWC > ACC' Regular-Season Conversation

Tough to say whether anyone truly believed that the Mountain West Conference had surpassed the Atlantic Coast Conference in the men's college basketball hierarchy, but it definitely was a thing that came up a lot over the past few months when it looked like we could be headed for a six-bid MWC and a three-bid ACC.

The Mountain West did end up getting one more bid than the ACC and had an emphatic First Four opening statement with Colorado State destroying Virginia by 27.

Since then, though, the leagues have gone in complete opposite directions, including the ACC's Clemson pummeling the MWC's New Mexico almost as badly as the Rams trounced the Cavaliers.

Clemson went on to upset Baylor in the second round, bringing ACC teams not named Virginia to a perfect 8-0 in the NCAA tournament.

The Tigers never trailed the Bears, but at least this one provided some late drama with Clemson darn near choking away a 61-46 lead. Baylor had a chance to tie it up at the free-throw line with 36 seconds remaining, but freshman Ja'Kobe Walter missed a pair before the Tigers salted it away.

(How about Clemson's Chase Hunter going for a season-high 21 points against New Mexico and 20 against Baylor? What a fine time to start playing your best basketball of the year)

Meanwhile, Utah State got demolished by Purdue, leaving San Diego State as the league's last best hope, per usual. Prior to the Aztecs' nightcap against Yale, the Mountain West was just 3-5 overall in this year's Dance.

Granted, 3-5 is better than most years. There have been several multi-bid 0-fors from the MWC in recent years, with the league sitting at 30-64 all-time in the NCAA tournament heading into SDSU-Yale.

They've got a little ways to go to catch the ACC's 483-251 record with 15 national championships.

But, hey, it was a fun few weeks of poking the bear, right?

Winner: Big East, and the Dream of a Repeat Champ

Of all the outrage that came from Selection Sunday, perhaps the loudest and most justified was that of everyone who was blown away by the notion that the Big East was deemed only a three-bid league.

Not to defend the selection committee's decision there, but speaking as a bracketologist, that's really not a consideration. They didn't look at the Mountain West as a whole and say "alright, well that's a six-bid league," nor did they come away from the Big East tournament thinking there were only three teams worth a darn playing in that event.

Conference-based stuff is kind of coincidental, as it's just the individual resumes and metrics that matter.

All the same, only three Big East teams felt outlandish.

However, it seems those three teams felt a responsibility to carry the league's reputation by at least each making it into the Sweet 16.

Creighton did so in double-overtime fashion Saturday. Marquette began the day on Sunday with a dramatic win over Colorado. Lastly, Connecticut made it a perfect 6-0 for the Big East with a 75-58 win over Northwestern that was never remotely in doubt.

The Huskies actually let up in a big way in the second half, which Danny Hurley will surely have something to say about to his guys for the next few days. They took a 22-point lead into halftime and extended it to 30 before letting Northwestern outscore them 31-18 the rest of the way.

But now, for the first time in a while, we can head into the Sweet 16 talking about the possibility of a repeat national champion.

2022 champ Kansas lost in the second round last year. 2021 champ Baylor did the same in its attempt to go back-to-back. 2019 champ Virginia was immediately eliminated in the first round of the next tournament. You have to go back to 2015 Duke reaching the 2016 Sweet 16 to find the last time we've even come this close to a repeat champion.

The way UConn dominated this week, though, it sure feels like we'll be talking about it heading into the Final Four, as well.

Loser: Rest for the Weary in Spokane

Alabama vs. Grand Canyon was not a high-scoring affair, falling a mile short of the over/under of 172.5.

But there is quite a fine line between a Virginia or Saint Mary's snooze-fest that doesn't even sniff a 140 total and the absolute carnage played at a breakneck pace that transpired in the first game in Spokane on Sunday night.

Bama-GCU featured 20 combined steals, 17 combined blocks and I'm going to venture a guess without checking the play-by-play log that there weren't any shot-clock violations, as it felt like both teams were dead set on trying to get up a shot with at least 20 left on the timer on every possession.

There were several frantic sequences in the second half where, after a dead ball was finally whistled, multiple players just fell to the floor in pure exhaustion.

It was this beautifully chaotic peanut butter and jelly sandwich combining Alabama's uptempo, free-flowing 109-96 first-round win over Charleston with Grand Canyon's tough as nails, lots of blocks and dunks 75-66 first-round victory over Saint Mary's.

Whatever boredom you may have felt during the Purdue and Duke games earlier in the day, this one made up for it.

GCU almost pulled off the upset, too. The 'Lopes led 58-55 with six minutes remaining but just couldn't get anything to fall from there. They missed their final four field-goal attempts and had several giveaways down the stretch as Alabama toughed out a 72-61 win for the memories.

Winner: Houston, in Spite of a Near Monumental Collapse

With two minutes remaining in regulation and Houston holding an 81-69 lead, it was time to start thinking about what to add here.

Maybe Kelvin Sampson as a winner for getting the Cougars back to the second weekend for a fifth consecutive tournament? It sure is remarkable what a consistent contender he has built there after how disappointing that program had been for decades.

Or perhaps something on Emanuel Sharp, who ended up scoring a career-high 30 points for the No. 1 seed out of the Big 12?

But as we pondered, Texas A&M rallied, just like it did back in 2016 in that historic second-round comeback against Northern Iowa.

While Houston embraced stall ball and tried to salt the game away, the Aggies kept fighting, culminating in Andersson Garcia—he of eight made three-pointers in the entire season—draining a game-tying triple at the buzzer to send this absurdly physical affair to overtime.

Houston darn near ran out of guys. Ja'Vier Francis, Jamal Shead, L.J. Cryer and Sharp all fouled out, leaving the Cougars with no choice but to put walk-on senior Ryan Elvin in the game in the final minute of overtime.

He hadn't played a meaningful second in the entire season, so of course he had to shoot free throws in a three-point game with Houston's season hanging in the balance. He was a bit strong on the first one but hit nothing but net on the second to more or less seal the deal.

By some miracle, Houston survived 100-95.

Loser: Cinderella

After a regular season in which AP Top 10 teams routinely lost to unranked foes and after a Championship Week that was complete carnage en route to five bid thieves, the natural assumption was that this could be one of the maddest Marches of all time.

Instead, we're headed for a Sweet 16 with more chalk than a family-size bottle of antacids.

Every single No. 1 seed is still alive. (Though Houston sure did make things mighty interesting against Texas A&M.)

Every single No. 2 seed is also still alive.

That alone is a little ridiculous. In 12 of the past 13 tournaments, at least two (and often more than two) of the top eight overall seeds failed to reach the Sweet 16. The lone exception to that rule came in 2019, when all eight won their first two games, including the eventual national champion who lost to a No. 16 seed the previous year—so here's looking at you, Purdue.

Beyond the ones and twos, six of the other eight spots in the Sweet 16 went to two No. 3 seeds, two No. 4 seeds and two No. 5 seeds.

The only real surprises still standing are No. 6 Clemson and No. 11 North Carolina State. And while Oakland's Jack Gohlke was adamant they weren't a Cinderella after they upset Kentucky in the first round, those two ACC teams really are not a Cinderella.

The good news is the rest of the tournament should be awesome. There's not a single "Meh, whatever" game on the docket for the next round. They all have the potential to be great.

But where's the plucky underdog from a school that 99.9 percent of people have never heard of before?

How are we supposed to process a Sweet 16 where it feels like every team—yes, even NC State—has a legitimate chance to win it all?

Thursday and Friday just won't be the same without that no-name team that everyone is pulling for.