March Madness- The KILJ Bracket Challenge sponsored by The Press Box and Wiley’s Interior Furnishings and Design had 34 brackets submitted and through two rounds of tournament play, here’s where some facts of the first two rounds and the standings.
The first round was the ultimate exhibition of tournament basketball in March with 13 upsets in 32 games (including #8 versus #9), while last year we saw just seven upsets. The biggest surprise was #14 Oakland outpacing #3 Kentucky 80-76.
In terms of the participants, out of 32 games the average number of correctly picked games was 20.8. The least amount of correctly picked games was 15, while Erica Martin had the most at 26 correct picks as she was also the only one to predict Oakland’s win over Kentucky.
Rick Bunnell and Jeff Broeg were right behind Martin with 25 correct choices in the first round.
Now the second round of March Madness proved that most of the time Cinderella stories usually reside only in storybooks with only two lower seeds advancing in the tournament (#6 Clemson and #5 Gonzaga).
#11 NC State does not count as the Wolfpack took down #14 Oakland, but they are the highest seed remaining in the Sweet 16.
Due to the lack of upsets, everyone performed admirably with 11.2 correct choices out of 16 second round games. Allie Liechty-Hultman had the most impressive second round with 15 correct picks as Kentucky proved again to be the downfall.
Seven people picked 13 correct choices, ten people chose 12 correct picks, and eight people had 11 correct choices.
Impressively, all 34 brackets have at least two of their final four teams in the running with 19 brackets holding on to all four of their final four teams. Unfortunately, four brackets have lost their champion—looking at Kentucky thrice and Drake once.
Overall, this is still anyone’s challenge to win as the top 15 brackets are only separated by ten points. Here is the top 15:
Tied for 1st place with 100 points: Allie Liechty-Hultman and Corbin Broeker
Tied for 2nd place with 98 points: Jeff Broeg and Lysha Bunnell
Tied for 3rd place with 96 points: Ray Stigge (down a final four team) and Eric Martin
Tied for 4th place with 94 points: Sharon Menke (down two final four teams), Brent Broeker, Cara Bunnell (down a final four team), Ellyanna Bunnell (down a final four team), Brent Rich (lost his champion), Rick Bunnell (down two final four teams), and Karen Drury.
Alan Buckert grabbed 92 points. Jakin Bunnell totaled 90 points but lost their champion.
In case you are wondering, I have 88 points after the first two rounds as I picked Grand Canyon to be my Cinderella story–I will not be visiting anytime soon.
Do not be discouraged as the Sweet 16 offers up the chance at eight points for each correct guess with #6 Clemson and #2 Arizona kicking off the first slate of games on Thursday, March 28th, at 6:09 pm.