Ladies and gentlemen, the craziest Final Four ever, seen on my AYG #GiantBracket:
I thought for sure the bracket would be all boring black text by now. I’m thrilled it’s still colorful and exclamation point-filled. 🙂
Anyway, three years after all four #1 seeds made the Final Four for the first time ever, we have the first ever Final Four with no #1s or #2s. Instead, #3 UConn, #4 Kentucky, #8 Butler and #11 Virginia Commonwealth are the last four teams standing, all competing for college basketball’s national championship. And of course, virtually nobody predicted it.
In the ESPN Tournament Challenge, out of 5.9 million brackets submitted, exactly two — jspearlman and vinquach — have the entire Final Four right. In the 16th annual Living Room Times Men’s NCAA Pool, out of 206 contestants, only two managed to get even 2 teams right: Jen Deschenes of Newington, CT (UConn, Butler) and Matt Ralston of Chicago, IL (UConn, Kentucky). Another 57 contestants got 1 team right (UConn 46, Kentucky 8, Butler 2, VCU 1). 147 contestants, more than 70 percent of the total, didn’t pick a single Final Four team correctly.
Even so, there is enough potential for movement among those near the top of the leaderboard that a variety of scenarios are still in play. Specifically, there are four contestants still alive — a “Final Four,” if you will. They are: Dane Lindberg, currently in first place; Robert Carlos, currently in second; Ross Lancaster, currently tied for fourth; and Pat McGriff, currently tied for 17th. (Links go to their brackets.)
Lindberg, my friend and USC classmate who now lives in Arlington, Virginia with his wife Kristen Kotyk (whose brother attends VCU; Dane’s parents graduated from Butler), will win the pool if there’s a Butler-Kentucky title game, or if Butler beats UConn for the title. Put another way, he’ll win if Butler wins the championship or loses to Kentucky. (If he’d followed his wife’s advice to put VCU in the Final Four along with Butler, he’d have clinched the pool by now.)
Carlos, a USC Class of 2001 alum and former student trainer for the Trojan football and baseball teams, who I know only via Twitter, will win the pool if VCU beats UConn in the championship game.
Lancaster, a North Texas alumnus & grad student (SUN BELT WEST REPRESENT!) who I met via The Mid-Majority’s cult community of mid-major obsessives, will win the pool if there’s a Kentucky-VCU title game. Here’s a photo of Lancaster with the original Bally.
McGriff, an employee of Iowa State University who found my pools through the Internet some years ago, will win the pool if UConn wins the championship, whether over Butler or VCU.
Meanwhile, in the 14th annual LRT women’s pool, the tournament is down to the Elite 8, but a “Fabulous 15” are still alive to win — led by Andrew Long, currently in first place, who would win in 30 of the remaining 128 scenarios, and Jenna (Auriemma) Stigliano, daughter of the UConn coach, currently tied for eighth place, who would win in 26 scenarios. Full standings here; scenarios here.
You made the second BUTLER too big, it should have gotten progressively bigger, did a much better job with VCU.
I know, but that Pitt game was so epic, I couldn’t help it. AYG brackets are supposed to represent spontaneous emotions about game outcomes. And I wasn’t anticipating the need to continue getting bigger and bigger!!
I’m actually a North Texas alum for undergrad, I just went to Mizzou for a year. The Bally I’m in the photo with is actually Bally #1 (Kyle’s) that I posed with when Kyle was in Denton for a game against South Alabama in 2008. #factcheckincuz 🙂
Oops! I should’ve known that about North Texas, just screwed it up in haste. Will fix that and the Bally thing. Thanks!
McGriff, an employee of Iowa State University who fouls my pools through the Internet some years ago, will win the pool if UConn wins the championship, whether over Butler or VCU.
That’s not very nice, accusing an internet lurker of fouling your basketball pool!
Btw, how did you print that giant bracket? I can’t imagine Becky let you go out and buy one of those giant roll printers they use for engineering and architecture drawings. If you’re going to run off and buy a specialty printer, may I suggest one of these instead. 😉
Heh, thanks. fouls = found … basketball on the brain! Fixed.
As for the #GiantBracket… I had it printed at Kinko’s (or rather “FedEx Office”…dumbest re-branding ever) using their in-house rolling printer that can print on 3-foot-tall paper. It’s roughly 3′ by 5′ (or maybe 4.5′). Because I had it printed in black & white, it only cost like $6 or something.
In the women’s pool, Stanford is crossed out on a lot of brackets (at least in the standings/outcomes lists).
That’s weird, it’s actually only in the Possible Outcomes list… must be something buggy there. Stanford’s not crossed out in the Standings. I’ll have to take a look later and try to figure out what’s going on. Thanks.
I wonder now, with a day’s hindsight, whether your elation over the wackiness of this year’s bracket might set you up for a fall. This, especially the play of VCU, could be Exhibit A for the NCAA to go to 96 teams. Clearly the extra game didn’t hurt the Rams, and the people who whisper in the NCAA’s ear will tell them they’re going to want bigger markets represented than Richmond and Indianapolis.
I tweeted this way back in the “third” round:
But, whatever. I’m not going to let a concern about hypothetical future expansion stop me from being happy about a great story, any more than I was dissuaded from rooting for a Boise State national championship by the notion that it would have allowed BCS defenders to say, “See? Our system is fair! Even Boise State can win a national title!” Those are structural battles about the future of the sport; this is the here-and-now, rooting for the teams I like. Totally separate spheres.