As usual, men's Bracket Challenge Game players relied on No. 1 seeds when it came to filling out their Final Four picks.
Top seeds Gonzaga, Arizona and Kansas were the three teams that were picked to make the Final Four the most among completed brackets, with East Region No. 2 seed Kentucky rounding out the top four. The Wildcats came in ahead of East Region No. 1 seed Baylor — the defending national champion.
While those three No. 1 seeds led the field, that doesn't tell the full story. Gonzaga, the No. 1 overall seed, is slotted to make the Final Four in 62.54 percent of brackets — much, much higher than Arizona (49.33) and Kansas (42.68).
Check out how the numbers break down, by region, among the four most common picks:
West
Team | Percent picked to Final Four |
---|---|
No. 1 Gonzaga | 62.57 |
No. 2 Duke | 17.31 |
No. 3 Texas Tech | 8.52 |
No. 4 Arkansas | 3.25 |
If you think that 62.57 Gonzaga number is eye-opening, read this: Almost half of the brackets — 46.21 — have the Bulldogs going a step further and playing in the national championship game.
South
Team | percent picked to Final Four |
---|---|
No. 1 Arizona | 49.33 |
No. 2 Villanova | 16.96 |
No. 3 Tennessee | 16.74 |
No. 4 Illinois | 4.81 |
The Arizona Wildcats were the clear favorite in the South, though SEC tournament champion Tennessee wasn't far behind Big East tournament champ Villanova here.
Midwest
Team | percent picked to Final Four |
---|---|
No. 1 Kansas | 42.68 |
No. 2 Auburn | 21.66 |
No. 5 Iowa | 14.21 |
No. 3 Wisconsin | 9.59 |
In an interesting twist, Midwest Region No. 4 seed Providence is Final Four-bound on only 1.92 percent of MBCG brackets — behind even its first-round foe, No. 13 seed South Dakota State (2.82).
This is the only region of the four that didn't have some combination of seeds No. 1 through 4. Instead, Big Ten tournament champion Iowa, the No. 5 seed, is slotted third from the Midwest.
East
Team | percent picked to Final Four |
---|---|
No. 2 Kentucky | 28.97 |
No. 1 Baylor | 24.08 |
No. 3 Purdue | 20.07 |
No. 4 UCLA | 11.42 |
The East was bunched up here, with three teams in the 20s, followed by 2021 Final Four participant UCLA.