It’s on to the weekend that many consider the defining mark of a season. Reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament and a season is a success. Two wins from the Final Four and all the weekday games are in prime time.

“I just told everybody, just wait,” Michigan’s John Beilein, one of three coaches taking a Big Ten team to the round of 16, said of the conference’s early struggles. “The level of coaching in this league, the resources in this league, the level of talent in this league, it will come to the top.”

The regionals start Thursday and are in New York City (East), Memphis (South), San Jose, Calif., (West) and Kansas City, Mo. (Midwest).

Conference call

The Big Ten, Southeastern Conference, Big 12 and Pac-12 will all have three teams in the Sweet 16. The Pac-12’s run is the most impressive considering it had four teams in the field of 68. Now, Oregon, Arizona and UCLA are all still alive.

The SEC had three of five advance while the Big 12 had six teams in the field and the Big Ten had seven.

The conference that had the toughest early rounds was the Atlantic Coast Conference. North Carolina is the only remaining team from the nine that started the tournament.

Seed thoughts

The No. 4 seeds all advanced to the Sweet 16, the only line that didn’t lose a team. Florida, Purdue, West Virginia and Butler were the four No. 4 seeds that moved on.

The only double-digit seed still playing is No. 11 Xavier, which faces No. 2 Arizona in the West Regional semifinals.

No Duke

One of the more stunning losses by an ACC team was Duke, which lost 88-81 to South Carolina.

Big rematch

Back on Dec. 3, Kentucky and UCLA met in Lexington. Just over three months later, the two will meet in Memphis in the South Regional’s Sweet 16.

UCLA won Dec. 3, 97-92, its second win over Kentucky in as many years.