Now that’s more like it! With the first half of the Sweet Sixteen complete we saw a one seed and a pair of two seeds go down. And with that a big shakeup in the standings. Making a huge move into consideration is The Real Gusto, the one and only entry to pick all four outcomes correctly. Also making a strong showing were two entries, the only two, in fact, that picked three winners, Pad Rat and Dunkenstein Senior. The loss by North Carolina threw a huge wrench into the works for everyone, namely the XXGoodBrackets picks that have been leading the way. Actually in the current standings, the XXGoodBrackets still lead overall, such was the strength of the early picks, but Carolina was prominent in all of the brackets, such that two of the entries tumbled to 72nd and 73rd place in the Possible Score sort and the best bracket sits in a tie for seventh place.
Every entry has seen at least one pick fall from the Elite Eight, so there’s no need to fret if you’ve seen a big X in one or more of your picks. On the other hand, if you’ve seen seven of your Elite Eight picks fall by the wayside, as maluri2024 has, then you definitely have cause for concern. Maluri was one of nine entries that got blanked on Thursday, seven of which saw their names sporting that pesky asterisk. But the greater concern is that Nathan Detroit now has some serious competition in the race for the Brandy Award.
Of the original 125 entries, 90 are still alive, the majority still with a chance to claim the overall title. Tomorrow should provide some clarity, and if we have the same number of upsets (and some of us are really hoping that’s not going to be the case in certain instances) then things are really going to get crazy.