Dominant performances by top seeds are now the norm at the NCAA Tournament

There is still madness in March. There are buzzer beaters. Upsets. Postgame tears. “Wait, what?” moments that go viral and become part of NCAA Tournament lore. The chaos that makes the tournament such a captivating three-week spectacle is just getting a little harder to come by these days. And that might not be changing any time soon. For every High Point and VCU — which shredded perfect brackets by the millions while pulling first-round stunners over power-conference schools — there is an ever-increasing helping of chalk as favorites crush the dreams of potential Cinderellas before they even catch a glimpse of a glass slipper. The top four seeds in each region went 16-0 across an opening...