Not so Sweet 16

Another 32 contestants lost their national champion in the tournament's first weekend, thanks to Syracuse (picked by 14); Kansas (12); Wichita State (5: Fitch, Karlsruher, Lenok 2, Marshall, L Schlegel); and Villanova (George B). This brings the total of championless entrants up to 48, a full 47% of our group.

Kansas and Syracuse also cost 164 entrants one of their Elite Eight (82 each) and 110 entrants one of their Final Four (59 Kansas and 51 Syracuse). The 65 and 31 who picked Wichita State (into the Elite Eight and Final Four, respectively) means that only two (2) of our six most popular Elite Eight choices remain (Florida and Arizona), and only one (1) of our four most popular Final Four choices (just Florida). That's pretty lame, even for us.

Villanova (36 E8, 11 F4), Creighton (36 E8, 10 F4), and St. Louis (16 E8, 4 F4: E Albert, D Kornfeld, E Leach, Watson) didn't do anyone any favors, either. Unorthodox Elite Eight choices that teased by winning a game but no more include: North Carolina (chosen by 4: DeLauro, Jr., Lenok 2, Rybaltowski, Serri); Gonzaga (T Cristinzio, J McAtee, B Wright); Harvard (Corey); Memphis (Rybaltowski, who also took Memphis into his Final Four); North Dakota State (Urban Angels); Pitt (Isdaner); and Texas (Selarnick).

Out there Final Four selections that still have a chance include: San Diego State (5: Butscher, Chumchucker, M Peloso, Steitz, B Wright); Virginia (4: Babenzien, D Josephs, M Leach, Mahalko); Iowa State (B Brenner, R Simon); and Baylor (A Cristinzio).

The demise of Wichita State and North Dakota State means the Urban Angels entry has zero (0) Elite Eight teams remaining after the first weekend of the tournament. Since Urban Angels chose four Final Four teams that did not appear anywhere in his/her/their Elite Eight, he/she/they still has/have UCLA alive as a Final Four team.

A decent 39 of our contestants managed to get one Wild Card point: 33 for UNC; 2 (M Kleiman, J Whiteside) for Gonzaga; and 1 each for Harvard (Urban Angels); Mercer (Sciarabba); Pitt (Crotty); and Stephen F. Austin (George B). Fifteen entrants got 6 Wild Card points (with the possibility of more): the 14 who chose UCLA and M Josephs, who took Baylor.

J Donadio, Jr. still sits atop the leaderboard with 203 points, 13 ahead of non-paying entry ESPN Bracketology (190). Another six entrants are within 5 points of second place (S Adams (189); M Leach (189); L Donadio (188); Baumgarten (187); S Smith (185); and C Whiteside (185). Urban Angels (114), B Wright (126), and Steitz (128) trail the field by at least 18 points. Full standings may be found by clicking the link on the right-hand side of the page.