The games are underway and the madness is in full swing. Beginning with the “First Four” games on March 19th, eight teams played for a spot in the March Madness tournament. The teams that secured their spots were Fairleigh Dickinson, Belmont, North Dakota State, and Arizona State. Each of these teams, however, lost to their opponents in the Round of 64 games.
Although the winners of the First Four are almost always expected to lose in the first round, other high seeds pulled out upsets that, unfortunately, ruined a lot of brackets. For example, there were some mild upsets: nine seed UCF beating eight seed VCU, 10 seed Minnesota beating seven seed Louisville, nine seed Baylor beating eight seed Syracuse, etc. But, there were also some bigger upsets that no one saw coming. For example, 12 seed Murray State beating five seed Marquette, 12 seed Oregon beating five seed Wisconsin, etc.
Other than the upsets in the Round of 64, there hasn’t been many more. The only “upset” in the Round of 32 was mild: five seed Auburn beating four seed Kansas. Also, Oregon is the only double digit seed to make it to the Sweet Sixteen, they will be playing a number one seed: Virginia. The Sweet Sixteen games begin March 28th and only last until the 29th, then come the Elite Eight games, the Final Four games, and most importantly, the championship game which will be played in Minneapolis on April 8th at the U.S. Bank Stadium.
In regards to brackets, many people gave up after the Round of 64 games. With the multitude of upsets, people’s brackets fell apart early. One lucky participant in this year’s bracket, however, broke the record for longest streak with a perfect bracket, lasting until game 49. The odds of having a perfect bracket for 48 games is one in 281,474,976,710,656 – impressive.
Whether fans take their brackets seriously or not, at the end of the day all that matters is if March Madness lives up to its name, and it sure is doing that this year.
https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/mml-official-bracket/2019-03-25/ncaa-bracket-2019-printable-march-madness
Ker Ker! Cool post. I’m not too involved with the March Madness, but it doesn’t shock me to hear there have already been some upsets. I also didn’t realize having a perfect bracket was that rare! I knew it was difficult, but I figured it happened sometimes. I wonder how much money people make for having a near-perfect bracket. I’m also curious if you made a bracket, and if you did, who do you have winning yours? Really loving your blog! Keep it up.