So, how did our NCAA March Madness Bracket Guide do?
Not too bad, actually.
We identified the four teams we felt would win the title, including Baylor and Gonzaga along with Houston, which also reached the Final Four. We missed on Illinois however, when the Illini were bounced in Round Two by Loyola-Chicago.
ROUND ONE
Advance Every #1 Seed (4-0)
Advance Every #2 Seed (3-1, Ohio State crushed us)
Advance Every #3 Seed (3-1, Thanks a lot, Texas!)
Advance Two #8 Seeds & Two #9 Seeds (#8 Seeds went 3-1)
Advance Three #12 Seeds & One #5 (#5 Seeds went 3-1)
Advance Three #4 Seeds (2-2)
Advance #6 USC (Winner)
Advance #11 UCLA (Winner)
Advance Another #11 (1-1)
Advance #7 Oregon (Winner)
Advance #7 UConn (Loser)
Advance #10 Rutgers (Winner)
Advance #10 Virginia Tech (Loser)
Pick the Other Two Games As You'd Like (Hopefully you advanced Ohio or North Texas and either Syracuse or Texas Tech)
ROUND TWO
Advance Every #1 Seed (3-1, Thanks Illinois)
Advance #2 Ohio State (Yuckeyes!)
Advance Another #2 Seed (Hopefully you didn't choose Iowa)
Advance Two #3 Seeds (1-2, only Arkansas made it through)
Find Two #10, 11 or 12s (#11 UCLA, #11 Syracuse, #12 Oregon State all made it)
Pick The Other Six Games As You'd Like
SWEET 16
Advance #1 Gonzaga (Winner)
Advance #1 Baylor (Winner)
Advance #1 Illinois OR #4 Oklahoma St (We were drawing dead)
Advance #1 Michigan OR #4 Florida St (Wolverines survived)
Advance Half The #2s Remaining (Houston was only #2 to make it through)
Advance Half The #3s Remaining (Arkansas was only #3 to make it through)
REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Advance Your Champion (Winner unless you picked Illinois)
Pick AT LEAST One #1, #2 or #3 Seed On Opposite Side (Hopefully, this was Gonzaga, Baylor or Houston)
Do Not Pick A #10 Seed (No #10s made it)
If you dug into our Complete Bracket Guide, you saw that we asked you not to rule out #6, #7 or #11 seeds and showed that #11s actually had the best value outside the top teams.
FINAL FOUR
Advance Champion (Winner unless you picked Illinois or Houston)
Advance Any #1, 2 or 3 (Hopefully this was Gonzaga or Baylor)
JALEN SUGGS. UNBELIEVABLE! 🤯🚨@ZagMBB #FinalFour pic.twitter.com/QeEAjENYmG
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 4, 2021
NATIONAL CHAMPION
In our Complete Guide, we told you that while we saw Houston as a legitimate title contender, we would be leaning heavily toward picking one of the three #1 seeds we'd identified, noting there was about a 63-percent chance it would be one of the #1 seeds.
If you “zigged” when everybody else “zagged” here, you should have had a 50/50 chance of having Baylor winning it all.