Who we thought would be Elite and Final

Here's something moderately interesting. In most years our top choices for champion, Final Four, and Elite Eight are the same (or very close to it). Not so much this year:

Top four choices for champion:

Florida: 28
Arizona: 18
Duke: 15
Syracuse: 14

Top four choices for Final Four:

Florida: 69
Kansas: 59
Syracuse: 51
Duke: 46

Top four choices for Elite Eight:

Florida: 92
Kansas: 82
Syracuse: 82
Arizona: 80

So, Duke was 3rd most popular champion, 4th most popular Final Four choice, and 5th most popular Elite Eight selection. Kansas was 2nd most popular Final Four, tied for 2nd most popular Elite Eight, and only 5th most popular champion. Arizona was 2nd most popular champion, 5th most popular Final Four choice, and 4th most popular Elite Eight team. Syracuse went 4th, tied for 2nd, and 3rd. Of course, three of those four teams have lost to double-digit seeds already, so there's also that.

Correlating our choices to the selection committee's seeding, our top four Final Four choices included a 1-seed, a 2-seed, and two 3-seeds. Our next four most popular Final Four choices included two 1s and two 4s. The last 1-seed went to our tied-for-16th choice for Final Four. Nice to be right on top of things, right?

Here's the full list of all teams chosen for the Elite Eight:

Florida (chosen by 92 out of 103 contestants)
Syracuse (82)
Kansas (82)
Arizona (80)
Duke (75)
Wichita State (65)
Michigan State (50)
Louisville (43)
Villanova (36)
Creighton (36)
Wisconsin (29)
Virginia (25)
Michigan (19)
Kentucky (19)
Saint Louis (16)
Cincinnati (14)
Iowa State (10)
San Diego State (9: Butscher, Chumchucker, L Leach, M Paston, M Peloso, Pomerantz, Steitz, Watson, B Wright)
SMU (5: Case, Gorenstein, Lenok 2, M McAtee, Templeton)
North Carolina (4: DeLauro, Jr., Lenok 2, Rybaltowski, Serri)
Ohio State (4: Baumgarten, B Brenner, S Leach, R Simon)
Gonzaga (3: T Cristinzio, J McAtee, B Wright)
Connecticut (2: Barone, A Cristinzio)
Oklahoma State (2: D Kornfeld, Steitz)
St. Joseph's (2: Crotty, J McAtee)
UCLA (2: Chumchucker, Kovolski)
Boston U (2: Kovolski, Urban Angels)
Chattanooga (Urban Angels)
Houston (Urban Angels)
NC Central (Urban Angels)
UNC-Asheville (Urban Angels)
North Dakota State (Urban Angels)
New Mexico State (Urban Angels)
Delaware (A Cristinzio)
Clemson (A Cristinzio)
Baylor (A Cristinzio)
Harvard (Corey)
Memphis (Rybaltowski)
Xavier (Booth)
Pittsburgh (Isdaner)
Southern Mississippi (T Cristinzio)
Texas (Selarnick)
New Mexico (T Joseph 2)

Here's our full Final Four list:

Florida (69)
Kansas (59)
Syracuse (51)
Duke (46)
Arizona (40)
Wichita State (31)
Michigan State (21)
Louisville (19)
Villanova (11)
Creighton (10)
Kentucky (9: Booth, Brenner, Case, D Kedson, L Leach, M Paston, Pomerantz, R Simon, Steinhardt)
Wisconsin (9: Baumgarten, Brenner, Jr., N Donadio, J Donadio, Sr., Haklar, T Joseph 2, L Leach, McKillip, L Schlegel)
Michigan (8: Barone, Booth, Kovolski, L Leach, S Leach, McKillip, R Wanger, G Wright)
Cincinnati (7: Butscher, T Joseph, M Leach, Moscow, M Peloso, Selarnick, B Wright)
San Diego State (5: Butscher, Chumchucker, M Peloso, Steitz, B Wright)
Saint Louis (4: E Albert, D Kornfeld, E Leach, Watson)
Virginia (4: Babenzien, D Josephs, M Leach, Mahalko)
Iowa State (2: Brenner, R Simon)
St. Joseph's (Crotty)
Baylor (A Cristinzio)
Memphis (Rybaltowski)
UCLA (Urban Angels)
Georgetown (Urban Angels)
Texas San Antonio (Urban Angels)
Texas Southern (Urban Angels)

Yeah, we know. It'll be nice when we actually have more real games to write about.