March Madness down to four
It’s the moment sports fans have been impatiently waiting for all year; March Madness has returned!
Every March, millions of fans come together to enjoy one of the biggest, most exciting events in all of sports. These fans gather not only to watch, but also to compete.
The NCAA Division I college basketball tournament hosts 68 teams that compete in seven rounds for the glory of a national championship. But for the fans, it’s all about the brackets.
This year, 17.2 million people created brackets for ESPN’s Tournament Challenge. After just eight games, only five percent of those brackets remained perfect. After the first full day, just .25 percent of all brackets stayed perfect. For as long as the tournament has existed, there has never been a recorded case of a perfect bracket. And there in lies the madness.
People compete intensely both internally and in public against the world. But the truth is, nobody really wins. It’s all about who is the least wrong.
This year, a resounding 39.2 percent of all brackets selected Duke to win the championship, miles ahead of the next most popular team, North Carolina (15.7 percent).
Most likely it has to do with the fact that Duke boasts the consensus first pick in the 2019 NBA draft, Zion Williamson. Williamson is favored -2000 to 1 to go first overall. For those of you who don’t understand betting odds, it’s literally a 99.5% chance. It’s safe to say he’s a talented player. And the main reason so many brackets had Duke on top.
Unfortunately, those brackets were all shattered over the weekend as Duke suffered a 68-67 upset loss to Michigan St on Sunday Mar. 31.
After two weeks of play, there have been ten major upsets, and brackets everywhere have absorbed the shock. Unsurprisingly, there are no perfect brackets remaining as we are down to the Final Four. Virginia, Texas Tech, Michigan State and Auburn.
Ironically, March madness wil cap-off in April. The semi-final games will take place on April 6. and the championship game is set for April 8.
Who will come out on top of the madness? Tune in to find out.
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