Six, Three, and other levels of competence

The Elite Eight contained three #1 seeds, a #2 seed, and a #3 seed. The Final Four contains two #1s and a #3. The number of our contestants who got better than five Elite Eight teams correctly can be counted on one finger: B Peloso got 6 of 8. But don't worry, twice as many of us guessed better than half the Final Four: Naumgarten and Baum, both with 3 of 4.

There were 19 contestants who got five of Eight, 28 who got four of Eight, and 20 who got just three of Eight. Five excellent entrants managed just two (2) correct Elite Eight teams: Avila, R Simon, Bud Acchione, Beibel 3, and Booth. Two contestants accurately selected exactly one (1) of the Eight: Serri and Myers.

For the Final Four, despite two #1s in the mix, 59% of us correctly picked less than half the participating teams. We had 29 pool-pickers who got exactly half (2), while 35 contestants came up with one (1) of the Four, and nine (9) entrants didn't get any (0) right at all: Biebel 3, Booth, Myers, P Ripley, M Pogach, J Whiteside, Su Leach, M Peloso, and Serri.

Moving forward, while 24 of us (32%) lost their national champion in the first weekend, only 23 of us (30.7%) have a national champion that's still playing. Nine took UNC, nine took Gonzaga, and five (Brindisi, Karlsruher, L Leach, P Leach, R Schlegel) liked Oregon. Poor little South Carolina had the confidence of nobody in our contest, though thinking about it, that probably makes the Gamecocks feel pretty good about their chances.