KILJ Bracket Challenge- After 25 days, the 2024 men’s basketball tournament has ended, and UConn has taken home their sixth National Championship after defeating Purdue last night 75-60. The Huskies are the first team since 2007 to repeat as National Champions as well.
UConn dominated their competition with each of their tournament wins coming by at least 14 points. In the same way that UConn dominated, the Bunnell’s dominated the KILJ Bracket Challenge.
Rick Bunnell, with 294 points, has won this year’s KILJ Bracket Challenge, sponsored by The Press Box Grill and Bar and Wiley’s Interior Furnishings and Design. His best rounds were the first round and the Sweet 16. He guessed 25 of 32 games right in round one and five of eight correct in the Sweet 16.
In second place was Lysha Bunnell with 290 points. Her key was consistency, never guessing less than 50% of the games in the round correctly. Her second round was her strongest round with 13 correct guesses, which tied for second most in the round.
Lastly, grabbing third place was Ellyanna Bunnell with 286 points. Her strong finish helped elevate her pass the competition after a lackluster first round. She also guessed 13 games correctly in the second round to help her cause.
After a spectacular run for Julie Liechty, UConn played spoiler as she had guessed the last six games correctly, including a perfect four for four in the Elite Eight. The loss sent her back to 6th place, which was still impressive after starting in 25th place after the first two rounds.
The KILJ Bracket Challenge saw 16 brackets correctly pick UConn as the National Champion and if the KILJ staff was involved in the challenge everyone would have finished in 28th place or lower—fun fact.
Thank you all for participating, congratulations to our prize winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors The Press Box Grill and Bar and Wiley’s Interior Furnishings and Design for allowing us to put this together. The Bracket Challenge will be back again next year!
Top 10
- Rick Bunnell
- Lysha Bunnell
- Ellyanna Bunnell
- Sharon Menke
- Allie Liecthy-Hultman
- Julie Liecthy
- Alan Buckert
- Jeff Broeg
- Mat Wilson
- Karen Drury