A No. 15 seed in the Sweet 16. One top seed and a pair of No. 2s out. Two double-digit seeds set to meet the Midwest.
Yes, it's been a crazy NCAA men's tournament. So unpredictable, in fact, that no Men's Bracket Challenge Game player went 16-for-16 selecting Sweet 16 teams.
One did, however, get 15 right: "Gwick1"
The only miss from this top performer? No. 15 Saint Peter's. Then again, only 28,081 MBCG brackets — or 1.53 percent — had the Peacocks in the Sweet 16. So no shame there.
Continuing on, "Gwick1" has an Elite Eight of Duke-Arkansas, Villanova-Houston, Kansas-Miami (Fla.) and Kentucky-North Carolina. Only Kentucky is out from those. The predictions conclude with Arkansas beating Villanova in the national championship.
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We'll see how it all ends in a few weeks. Until then, here's a rundown of how many Sweet 16 teams the rest of the MBCG brackets have. Note that "Gwick1" being the only bracket to have 15 teams led to a percentage that was nearly 0.
| Correct Sweet 16 picks | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 14 | 0.001% |
| 13 | 0.029% |
| 12 | 0.302% |
| 11 | 2.216% |
| 10 | 9.112% |
| 9 | 17.076% |
| 8 | 22.879% |
| 7 | 14.474% |
| 6 | 8.091% |
| 5 | 3.548% |
| 4 | 1.522% |
| 3 | 0.707% |
| 2 | 0.375% |
| 1 | 0.611% |
| 0 | 19.027% |
The most common number of Sweet 16 teams for MBCG players is eight. It was seven last year. A little more than half of MBCG brackets this year had between seven and nine teams.
But what about specific teams? As you can expect, No. 1 Gonzaga, the top overall seed, was the runaway most popular team to make the Sweet 16. Though the Bulldogs got a scare from No. 9 Memphis, Gonzaga remains in the hunt for their first national championship. The Bulldogs are one of three Sweet 16 teams that were picked to make this round on at least 90 percent of brackets. Eight were picked by at least 65 percent of players.
Here's the complete list, from No. 1 Gonzaga's 93.67 percent to No. 15 Saint Peter's 1.53 percent.
| Team | Percent picked to Sweet 16 |
|---|---|
| Gonzaga | 93.67 |
| Arizona | 91.95 |
| Kansas | 91.24 |
| Duke | 81.69 |
| Villanova | 75.35 |
| Purdue | 66.80 |
| Texas Tech | 66.66 |
| UCLA | 65.47 |
| Houston | 45.05 |
| Arkansas | 40.74 |
| Providence | 20.82 |
| North Carolina | 15.66 |
| Michigan | 12.66 |
| Miami (Fla.) | 9.29 |
| Iowa State | 6.21 |
| Saint Peter's | 1.53 |
For biggest misses, Baylor, Auburn and Kentucky are the only teams on the 1 and 2 lines to bow out. They're also the top picks from MBCG players to make the Sweet 16 that didn't get there. The Wildcats were in the third round on 82.79 percent of brackets, Baylor was in the Sweet 16 on 78.93 percent and Auburn was picked for the Sweet 16 by 79.48 percent.
