3/24/25
One of the most anticipated weekends of the year for sports fans has come and went and while the first two rounds of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament disappointed with a lack of upsets, there was still plenty of excitement across the nation. Seattle hosted the most exciting game so far with Maryland’s buzzer beater win over Colorado State in the second round. However, there were only 11 upsets in terms of seeding thru 48 games in the tournament.
In Professor DW’s March Madness Bracket Challenge there was a traffic jam until Jeff Johnson of Chehalis found some breathing room at the top of the leaderboard. Jeff pulled ahead with a 30-point advantage thanks to a very impressive second round in which he only missed two games. 14 out of Jeff’s 16 predicted teams in the Sweet 16 made it. Florida over Tennessee is his championship pick and since he is in the top 99.9% of all brackets on ESPN, the Gators have to feel pretty good about their chances.
Again, the top 10 all fall into the money but Hannah L. in second place and Drew L. tied for 8th HAVE NOT filled out the required contact form so we can contact them if they win any money. There is still time left for those two to fill out the form which is down at the bottom of this page.
Jim Spinelli is the only one currently in the top 10 who lost their national champion in the opening weekend when St. John’s fell to Arkansas in the second round. Two others picked the Red Storm to win the national championship while one contestant picked Missouri to win it all. Only 4 out of 69 entrants lost their national champions. Other teams that were picked to win it all are Florida, Houston, Duke, Auburn, Tennessee, Kentucky, Michigan State, Alabama, BYU, Texas Tech, and Maryland. Only five teams in the Sweet 16 (Michigan, Ole Miss, Arizona, Purdue, and Arkansas) were not chosen by anyone in the contest to win it all.
Down below is the top 10 leaderboard currently with 15 games to go. Remember, games are worth more points as we go further into the tournament so it is still up for grabs.
Leaderboard (National Champions in Parentheses)
1. Jeff Johnson (Chehalis)- 570 Points (Florida)
2. Hannah L.- 540 Points (Houston)
3. Sojeong Hong- 530 Points (Duke)
4. Carter Fabritius- 510 Points (Auburn)
T5. Rad Palmer- 500 Points (Houston)
T5. Jim Spinelli- 500 Points (St. John’s)
T5. Skip Smith- 500 Points (Auburn)
T8. Drew L.- 490 Points (Houston)
T8. Macy Bundy- 490 Points (Florida)
T8. Josh Faskowitz- 490 Points (Tennessee)
T8. Shannon Brazell- 490 Points (Duke)
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