ESPN 6y

Tournament Challenge: Arizona's upset loss deflates some brackets

Here are some takeaways from Thursday night's contests:

• After 16 games, 6,306 of our 17.3 million brackets remain perfect.

• Before being upended by No. 13 Buffalo, No. 4 Arizona was picked to win the tournament in 4.9 percent of all brackets -- more than 1-seed Xavier, No. 2s Purdue and Cincinnati, and No. 3s Michigan, Tennessee and Texas Tech.

• Although 47.5 percent of brackets predicted an Alabama-Villanova tilt in the second round, only 4.9 percent of entries call for the No. 9 Crimson Tide to upset the top-seeded Wildcats.

• Some 41.3 percent of participants predicted Texas Tech will take down Florida in the second round Saturday; 26.2 percent envisioned the sixth-seeded Gators beating the Red Raiders.

• Michigan-Houston was a common second-round matchup (62.6 percent); 48.1 percent gave the edge to the Wolverines, 14.5 percent to the No. 6 Cougars.

• No. 5 Kentucky held off No. 12 Davidson to advance, keeping alive title hopes for the Wildcats and the 2 percent of brackets that picked them to win it all. Kentucky is one of just 13 schools picked to win the title in more than 0.9 percent of brackets, and the only one of those that is not a top-four seed.

Percentage who correctly picked each game:

• No. 3 Michigan (93 percent) over No. 14 Montana

• No. 13 Buffalo (10 percent) over No. 4 Arizona

• No. 9 Alabama (49 percent) over No. 8 Virginia Tech

• No. 6 Florida (78 percent) over No. 11 St. Bonaventure

• No. 3 Texas Tech (86 percent) over No. 14 Stephen F. Austin

• No. 6 Houston (66 percent) over No. 11 San Diego State

• No. 1 Villanova (97 percent) over No. 16 Radford

• No. 5 Kentucky (79 percent) over No. 12 Davidson


Earlier games

• No. 5 Ohio State (76 percent) over No. 12 South Dakota State

• No. 8 Seton Hall (48 percent) over No. 9 NC State (52 percent)

• No. 7 Rhode Island (51 percent) over No. 10 Oklahoma

• No. 3 Tennessee (91 percent) over No. 14 Wright State

• No. 4 Gonzaga (93 percent) over No. 13 UNC Greensboro

• No. 1 Kansas (95 percent) over No. 16 Penn

• No. 2 Duke (96 percent) over No. 15 Iona

• No. 11 Loyola-Chicago (35.6 percent) over No. 6 Miami

^ Back to Top ^