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          Men's College Basketball Blog

          Tournament Challenge: No perfect brackets left after UMBC stuns Virginia

          • ESPN
          Mar 17, 2018, 04:18 AM

          Here are some takeaways following the historic 16-1 upset:

          • Congrats to UMBC! They busted the final 24 brackets: None of our 17.3 million brackets remain perfect.

          • Percent of brackets picking No. 1 Virginia to get to Round 2 (96.7 percent), Sweet 16 (89.7 percent*), Elite Eight (58.7 percent), Final Four (48.2 percent), Title game (32.9 percent*), Champions (18.5 percent*). *highest percentage

          • Of the 17.3 million Tournament Challenge brackets, only 579,666 (3.35 percent) picked No. 16 UMBC to take down No. 1 Virginia. (Note: Plenty of those presumably came via the randomized bracket draw option.)***

          • The teams picked most to win the title, now that Virginia (18.5 percent) is out of the way: Villanova (16.3 percent), Duke (9.8 percent), Michigan St. (8.6 percent), Kansas (7.9 percent), UNC (6.9 percent).

          Percentage who correctly picked each game:

          • No. 16 UMBC (3.35 percent*** see above) over No. 1 Virginia

          • No. 4 Auburn (87 percent) over No. 13 Charleston

          • No. 9 Kansas St. (43.5 percent) over No. 8 Creighton

          • No. 3 Michigan St. (93.9 percent) over No. 14 Bucknell

          • No. 1 Xavier (96.7 percent) over No. 16 Texas Southern

          • No. 7 Nevada (46.2 percent) over No. 10 Texas

          • No. 5 West Virginia (82.6 percent) over No. 12 Murray St.

          • No. 10 Butler (58.0 percent) over No. 7 Arkansas

          • No. 2 UNC (95.9 percent) over No. 15 Lipscomb

          • No. 2 Cincinnati (92.9 percent) over No. 15 Georgia St.

          • No. 13 Marshall (13.5 percent) over No. 4 Wichita St.

          • No. 2 Purdue (95.7 percent) over No. 15 CS Fullerton

          • No. 7 Texas A&M (50.8 percent) over No. 10 Providence