This is why they call it March Madness: Of the top 16 seeds in this year’s NCAA basketball tournament, eight have already been sent packing.

Three of those eight were from the Big East, with all losing to double-digit seeds. The league’s top three finishers – Connecticut, Syracuse, and Boston College – won’t be going to the Sweet Sixteen. Wisconsin-Milwaukee, however, is. Bet you didn’t call that one in your office pool.

No. 12 Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s 83-75 win over no. 4 Boston College produced the Sweet 16’s biggest Cinderella, capping a disappointing final three weeks of an otherwise hugely successful season for the Eagles. UWM had never even won a tournament game before Thursday, but now they’ll get a chance to face top-ranked Illinois in the regional semifinals.

As with most upsets, this one resulted from a contrast in styles that proved particularly favorable for the underdog. UWM was totally overmatched inside by B.C.’s duo of Craig Smith and Jared Dudley, who combined for 47 points. Dudley took an absurd 21 free throws as the Eagles dominated any time the ball went inside. The glass was their domain, as well – B.C. rebounded nearly half their missed shots on the night.

Considering those numbers, you might think B.C. won by 30. And they would have if they had been able to get the ball across midcourt. UWM’s strategy of forcing a turnover before the Eagles could get the ball to their big guys proved startlingly effective. The Panthers pressured the Eagles into 22 turnovers, the biggest coming with 1:21 left when the Eagles had a chance to take the lead. Instead, the Panthers converted the miscue into a basket and never looked back.

The other major factor was UWM’s 3-point shooting. Just as they did in Thursday’s upset of no. 5 Alabama, the Panthers were on fire from long range, converting 11-of-24 from downtown. They’ll need to sustain that kind of shooting to have any kind of chance against Illinois, because it’s a far less friendly matchup. UWM’s pressure is unlikely to rattle the best guard trio in the country, the Illini’s Deron Williams, Dee Brown, and Luther Head. While it’s always enjoyable to ride a Cinderella team’s momentum, this might be a good time to get off the Wisconsin-Milwaukee bandwagon.

B.C.’s exit was certainly more surprising than the ousters of Syracuse and UConn, the last two NCAA champions. The Orange’s 60-57 overtime loss to Vermont was fairly easy to comprehend: The difference was a 30-foot 3-pointer by the Catamounts’ T.J. Sorrentine – the shot of the tournament thus far. The only reason the game went to OT was the horrendous shooting from normally steady guard Gerry McNamara, who was 4-for-18 from the field. Without McNamara stretching the defense, the Catamounts could sag effectively against star forward Hakim Warrick. While Warrick finished with 21 points and 12 rebounds, he also had a whopping 10 turnovers against the double-teaming defense.

Yesterday it was UConn’s turn. While a no. 10 beating a no. 2 is always news, this one shouldn’t have raised many eyebrows because N.C. State was grossly underseeded, and UConn didn’t have a fully functioning Rashad Anderson.

With Anderson, their lone sharpshooter, ineffective against the Wolfpack, the Huskies couldn’t stretch the defense, shooting 2-of-14 from 3-point range. The ‘Pack had no such problems, converting 10-of-20. They also limited the Huskies’ interior dominance by keeping UConn big men Josh Boone and Charlie Villanueva on the perimeter and out of shotblocking position. That kept N.C. State in the game long enough for Julius Hodge to win it on a brilliant drive with 4.3 seconds left.

Fortunately for the Big East, they were on the other end of the Madness in two other games. No. 5 Villanova overcame an injury to star forward Curtis Sumpter and another dreadful performance from Allan Ray to register an improbable 76-65 win over no. 4 Florida. Ray, the team’s leading scorer during the season, is 1-for-19 from the field in the tournament, yet the ‘Cats managed to survive the weekend. But he’ll have to play more like Ray Allen for ‘Nova to have a shot against top-seeded North Carolina this week, especially if Sumpter can’t go.

One other Big East team joins ‘Nova in the Sweet 16,and surprisingly, it’s the team that tied for seventh place in the league’s regular season: West Virginia. In the best game of the tournament thus far, the no.7 Mountaineers beat no. 2 Wake Forest in double OT, 105-102, on Saturday. The back-and-forth of clutch shots was absolutely dizzying during overtime, when the teams combined for 64 points. That’s more than the Nets get in 48 minutes on some nights.

The Mountaineers were able to advance thanks to a pair of unlikely heroes. Mike Gansey garnered all the attention, scoring 19 of his career-high 29 points in OT to continue an outstanding burst of play that began in the Big East tournament, but it was backup center D’or Fischer whose 15-point, 10-rebound, 3-block performance fueled a comeback from 13 down at the half. Now, improbably, the Mountaineers are just two games from the Final Four, and their region is weak enough that they can dare to dream the impossible.

Yet even as the Madness marches on, some sanity prevails. Top seeds Duke, North Carolina, Illinois, and Washington all advanced comfortably. No. 2 seeds Kentucky and Oklahoma State also survived, as did a single no. 3 (Arizona) and a no. 4 (Louisville). While everyone’s talking about the sentimental underdogs like Wisconsin-Milwaukee and West Virginia, the Final Four is very likely to be comprised of those eight top-seeded teams.

If so, the Big East will be shut out. West Virginia and Villanova are nice stories, but the league would be feeling a lot better if UConn, B.C., or Syracuse were still around. Unfortunately, this will go down as the weekend that the Big East’s big three took a big dive.