Viewer's Guide Round 1, Day 2 of the NCAA Men's Tournament
Mackenzie Salmon highlights the three matches you should watch on Friday, and what makes each one exciting.
The first round of the NCAA Tournament is halfway complete. Opportunities are or choices are, Your bracket It's already set.
Oakland is the biggest rivalry between the brackets on Thursday, as the No. 14 Golden Grizzlies take on the No. 3 Kentucky Wildcats.
Per NCAA, the Oakland upset left only 2,178 perfect arcs in its arc game. The NCAA said that was just 0.06% of participants. That number dropped further Thursday night when NC State became the third No. 11 seed to knock off a No. 6 seed.
ESPN links the number of perfect brackets remaining on their site after the first full day of play at 1,825… out of 22,114,647 entries. The NCAA said after NC State's upset that fewer than 200 perfect brackets still existed in its own game — though it's unlikely one of those belonged to Atlanta Falcons running back Bijan Robinson.
Thursday's other opponents were Duquesne, Oregon and NC State, all No. 11 seeds. They knocked off No. 6 seeds BYU, South Carolina and Texas Tech, respectively.
After eight games, the NCAA said only 2.43% of brackets remained perfect, but that was actually a big step forward from last year, when just 0.124% of brackets were flawless after eight games. These brackets were wiped out by early upsets at No. 4 Virginia and No. 2 Arizona — and saw upsets at No. 6 Iowa and, most notably, No. 1 Purdue before the first round was over.
However, Kentucky's loss as a No. 3 seed — its second double-digit seed in three years — rubbed off on a lot of people. Only 5.11% of bracket game participants chose Oakland, with roughly 25% of brackets putting the Wildcats in the Final Four, the NCAA said.
Sure, no bracket has ever been perfect – but there's still hope for the hundreds of you out there! You should be the first!
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