by The first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament are filled with upsets and fun, but now it is time to get down to serious business. If you have more than 12 teams left in your Sweet 16 and all 4 teams left in your Final Four, you’re in incredible shape! Even if you have 10 teams in the final 16 picked correctly and 3 of the Final Four teams left, you are doing well as long as you still have the champion and runner up picked correctly.
The night before the tournament began I spoke with my Vice President Cole McDaniel and the sentiment is always the same, you can count on most 1-4 teams getting there, and as long as you do that, you have a great chance to go deep in your bracket.
But I had to ask the question, how often does that actually happen? Well, let’s take a deeper dive into this year’s tournament to get some answers.
Out of the 16 teams remaining,
3 are one seeds with Gonzaga, Arizona and Kansas
2 are two seeds with Duke and Villanova
2 are three seeds with Purdue and Texas Tech
3 are four seeds with Arkansas, Providence and UCLA
That is 10 teams out of the remaining 16 from those lucrative top four seeds still remaining. That is excellent! Had I taken that route and just picked all top four seeds to make each regional brackets final four, I’d be sitting a Hell of a lot prettier than I actually am, with only 8 teams left in my bracket.
Even with my 8 teams left, I still have a chance in the pool I’m in because I still have my final of Villanova over UCLA along with Gonzaga reaching the Final Four as well. Do I expect to win? NO! I’m pretty sure I won’t even finish top 10.
But again, it all goes back to this, why pick outside of the Top 4 in each region unless you’re looking for the cheap thrill of a round one upset to brag to your buddies about? Need further proof, let’s take a look at the 6 teams remaining outside of a top 4 seed.
Houston (5), North Carolina (8), Miami (10), Michigan and Iowa St. (11) and St. Peters is a 15 seed. Outside of maybe Houston, can you honestly make a case for any of them winning it?
I conclude with this, a note to myself for 2023
“Dear Vince McKee, STICK TO THE TOP 4 SEEDS AND DON’T STRAY!”
If you really want to dive deep at my misery, below I listed which 8 teams I picked correctly, and which 8 have been sent home already!
8 still remaining that I actually picked correct
Gonzaga, Arkansas, Texas Tech and Duke ( 1,2,3,4)
UCLA (4)
Arizona (1) and Villanova (2)
Kansas (1)
Everyone of my picks remaining are seeded 1-4.
The ones I picked wrong however,
Baylor (1), VT (11) Kentucky (2)
Illinois (4) Tennessee (3)
Iowa (5), Wisconsin (3), Auburn (2)
I went outside of the Top 4 twice in the 8 I missed, and it burned me both times.
Enjoy the rest of the tournament folks!
