I’m finishing up my bracket. Tipoff is tomorrow. Anyone have any insights to some big upsets? I think Houston is overrated, AZ is underrated, don’t know about Kansas, and I’d take any insights anyone has. I’m in $20 on my work bracket.
I didn’t see the other thread on this topic:
Time once again for the annual NCAA men’s basketball tournament pool. Enter your brackets at ESPN.com or download the tournament app.
IMO their offense just isn’t good enough. They can D up pretty well, and if Gradey Dick is hitting his shots they can beat anyone. But I can’t see them doing that in enough games in a row to defend their title.
Join the pool!
Furman for the win
Tony Bennet: Huge upset loss → Win Championship → Huge upset loss → Huge upset loss
C’mon Corpus Christi!
I had Corpus Cristi too. #4 Virginia kinda set me back a bit. No really big upsets yet for my brackets. Kansas, Alabama look good. Arizona is only up 3 points over #15 Princeton. Yikes! Looking forward to Houston and UCLA
#2 Arizona is down!
And once again my bracket is officially dead within he first 10 games.
Missed it by that much.
Well, Joe Biden had Arizona winning it all, so don’t feel too bad.
Let’s go Pitt. My bracket sucks so far, but Pitt could help. And let’s go Drake!
Who’s your final 4? You can’t be dead just yet??
I almost always root for the underdog. Except when the underdog is coached by Rick “Larry Bird Isn’t Walking Through That Door” Pitino.
16th seed Fairleigh Dicksinson knocks off #1 Perdue
Only the second 16-over-1 upset of all time, the first being Maryland-Baltimore County over Virginia in 2018. Reading some commentary, this FDU-over-Purdue game makes the UMBC-over-UVA game look like a mild surprise. To wit:
FDU’s conference, the Northeast Conference, never had a team win in the NCAA tournament before.
FDU ranks somewhere around #300 out of 360 Division I teams in the KenPom power rankings.
FDU did not win the Northeast Conference regular season title. They finished tied for second, two games behind Merrimack. FDU’s regular season record was only 20-15.
FDU did not even win the Northeast Conference tournament. The only reason they qualified for the NCAA tournament was because their opponent in the NEC tournament championship game, Merrimack, is not eligible for the NCAA tournament. (Merrimack recently jumped from Division II to Division I.)
During the regular season, FDU won exactly ONE GAME against teams that were in the top 75% of teams in the KenPom rankings. All their other wins were against bottom-feeders in the lowest quartile.
That FDU win was great to watch! Incredible.
On top of that, FDU finished 4-22 last season.
And in a mild upset in the Midwest Region, #11 Pittsburgh beat #6 Iowa State convincingly, 59-41.
Listening to NPR this morning, they mentioned that the average height for FDU was 6’1", and that Purdue had the second tallest player in the tournament at 7’4". Holy crap, which team has someone taller than 7’4"?
(Speaking of 7’4" players, after Virginia lost the other day I joked to a friend “Where’s Ralph Sampson when you need him?” 
)
It’s Connor Vanover from Oral Roberts, who is 7’5.