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          Men's College Basketball Blog

          Tournament Challenge: One-third of brackets picked Kentucky to Sweet 16

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          • ESPN
          Mar 17, 2018, 11:44 PM

          Here are some takeaways as we head into the evening set of games:

          • Despite No. 11 Loyola-Chicago's first-round upset of No. 6 Miami, 31.8 percent of brackets predicted the Round of 32 matchup between the Ramblers and No. 3 Tennessee.

          • More people picked No. 11 Loyola-Chicago (9.5 percent) to make the Sweet 16 than they did for all of the No. 7s, No. 8s, No. 9s and No. 10s except for No. 8 Missouri and No. 10s Butler and Texas.

          • Only Virginia and Villanova were picked to make the Sweet 16 in more brackets than fellow No. 1 Kansas (85.7 percent). No. 8 Seton Hall was selected to go that far in just 5.6 percent of brackets.

          • Kentucky was picked to go to the Sweet 16 in 33.6 percent of brackets. 12.3 percent have them advancing to the Elite Eight.

          • 48.7 percent of entries predicted Rhode Island would meet Duke in the Round of 32, with 42.6 percent taking the Blue Devils to win. Overall, 83.9 percent of brackets had Duke making the Sweet 16.

          • No. 1 Villanova moves on to the Sweet 16. How far will they go? More entries picked them to get to the Elite Eight (74.2 percent) and Final 4 (58.4 percent) than any other team.

          • Just 0.3 percent of entries (57,060 of 17.3 million) correctly predicted UMBC, Kentucky, Buffalo and K-State in the South's Round of 32.

          • Also, 1.7 percent predicted both UMBC and Buffalo advancing to the Round of 32, correctly guessing both first-round upsets (UVA, Arizona).

          • Fifty-four percent of entries predicted Arizona and UVa would meet in the Sweet 16. 20.4 percent predicted Arizona would advance to the Elite Eight; 33.7 percent had UVa advancing to Elite Eight.

          • 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 picked these Sweet 16 teams to advance to the Elite Eight:

          • No. 1 Villanova: 74.2 percent

          • No. 2 Duke: 48.2 percent

          • No. 5 Kentucky: 12.3 percent