Players who powered those kinds of runs in the past - think Gordon Hayward or CJ McCollum or Steph Curry - in today's age would have moved up a level with a big NIL payday. There's no way to get old and stay old at the mid-major tier. There's just constant churn with middling talent.

This is the second year in a row that no true Cinderella teams (by that I mean low seeds from non major conferences) have made the S16?

I guess the closest this year would be High Point?