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Here are some takeaways from Friday's late-evening action: • Congrats to UMBC! They busted the final 24 brackets: 0 of our 17.3 million brackets remain perfect. • Of the 17.3 million brackets, four have correctly predicted 31 of 32 games ... and everyone has at least two right. • Only 7 percent of brackets see 9-seed Florida State making it past Xavier to the Sweet 16; 81.5 percent of brackets predicted the top-seeded Musketeers would advance to the Sweet 16. • Some 96.6 percent whiffed on UMBC over No. Virginia, but 29.1 percent called No. 11 Syracuse's upset of No. 6 TCU. • Percent of brackets picking the 1-seed Cavaliers to get to Round 2 (96.7 percent), Sweet 16 (89.7 percent*), Elite Eight (58.7 percentage), Final Four (48.2 percent), title game (32.9 percent*), champions (18.5 percent*). *-highest percentage of any tournament team • 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 from random bracket draws.***) • 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 State (8.6 percent), Kansas (7.9 percent), North Carolina (6.9 percent). Percentage who correctly picked each game Friday:
• No. 16 UMBC (3.35 percent***, see above) over No. 1 Virginia
• No. 11 Syracuse (29.1 percent) over No. 6 TCU
• No. 9 Florida State (46.7 percent) over No. 8 Missouri
• No. 5 Clemson (71.4 percent) over No. 12 New Mexico State
• No. 4 Auburn (87 percent) over No. 13 Charleston
• No. 9 Kansas State (43.5 percent) over No. 8 Creighton
• No. 3 Michigan State (93.9 percent) over Bucknell
• No. 1 Xavier (96.7 percent) over Texas Southern
• No. 7 Nevada (46.2 percent) over No. 10 Texas
• No. 5 West Virginia (82.6 percent) over No. 12 Murray State
• 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 State
• No. 13 Marshall (13.5 percent) over No. 4 Wichita State
• No. 2 Purdue (95.7 percent) over No. 15 Cal State Fullerton
• No. 7 Texas A&M (50.8 percent) over No. 10 Providence
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