In a tournament opening day not filled with upsets, it was easy for meme makers to pick on the two most obvious targets: Arizona with DeAndre Ayton, and Oklahoma with Trae Young.
Oklahoma losing to Rhode Island isn’t much of an upset; the Sooners were the lower seed. But Young was hyped by ESPN all season long as the next Stephen Curry. Many CBB fans got sick of it, and were truly happy to see him and Oklahoma lose in the round of 64.
With the Wildcats, it’s different. They didn’t just lose, like Miami against Loyola-Chicago. They were heavy favorites, with a blue chip player like DeAndre Ayton, and got crushed (losing by 21 points) to Buffalo. Add that to the pathetic Pac-12 this season, Sean Miller’s inability to succeed in the postseason with Arizona and the Pay-For-Play allegations, and you’ll see why Arizona made such a popular go-to-meme.
Who is on alert? Obviously, the big boys. Kentucky, Duke and Kansas (all got through the first day without any problems). North Carolina are up next, but at least in their first game, they shouldn’t do badly enough to become a meme later on.