Who REALLY Has the Easiest Bracket? By the Numbers
Published March 16, 2011 | 
Every year when March rolls around people start frantically absorbing information and filling out their brackets. A lot of people base which #1 seeds are a lock to advance to the Elite 8 and Final Four on who has the easiest bracket.
So who really does have the easiest bracket?
Fans Opinion on Twitter’
Before we take a look at actual statistics and numbers, let’s look at the oblivious fan to see where their heads are. A simple search for “Easiest Bracket” on the twitter search provides some quick and interesting results.
On a relatively small sample size of 50, the results are pretty surprising. It was pretty obvious that everyone thinks either Duke (West) or Pitt (Southeast) have the easiest bracket. The term “Easiest bracket of all time” was used on at least half of all tweets involving those two teams.
The “Duke has the easiest bracket” tweets almost all involved saying they have the easiest bracket every year, or littered with some sort of NCAA conspiracy theory. Typical Duke haters, which probably mean they KNEW Duke had the easiest road before ever looking at a bracket.
That probably just shows that the bias of the sample due to Duke haters (probably 55% of America) makes this data irrelevant and with very little thought involved. Either way, here’s the data:
| Duke | Pitt | OSU | Kansas |
|---|---|---|---|
| West | Southeast | East | Southwest |
| 21 | 24 | 1 | 4 |
Now The Data
There are a few ways to look at the strength of each bracket. I decided to look at the total strength of all 16 seeds, and then to look at the overall strength of the top 5 seeds. Continue reading
#2 Kansas St vs. #6 Xavier, Best NCAA Game Ever?
Published March 26, 2010 | 
If you missed it, I’m sorry, you need to stay up later. Or maybe lay down the law to your wife that you will be watching all the NCAA games. But you have missed one of the greatest NCAA tournament games I have ever witnessed.
The only reason its hard to call it the best ever is because there wasn’t a game winning shot. It was really more of a series of incredible 3′s by Xavier to keep the game within reach. It was the kind of game where if anyone was sleeping in your home or anywhere in the vicinity of it, they would be awoken by screams of excitement every minute. Jordan Crawford and Holloway were just pulling up from 30 feet with threes that you sit there saying “Oh, you cant shoot tha- OHHHH MY GOD WHAT A SHOT.”
This video doesn’t do the game justice but it sure hits the highlights. Note the excitement of the announcers when this stuff was happening. Epic.
Cinderella Ratings Problem For CBS/NCAA
Published March 23, 2010 | 
Cinderella’s are all the story and all the hype in the NCAA tournament right now. We’ve got #12 seed Cornell, #9 Northern Iowa who took down #1 seed Kansas. St. Mary’s is still around.
Now, watching the underdog Cinderella take down the big guys is awesome to watch (sometimes even when it’s at the expense of our bracket pools). ”The Sandman” Samham for St. Mary’s and Farokmanesh for Northern Iowa were my two favorite stars of the last round of the tournament. But these guy’s still being around could be at huge expense to the NCAA and CBS. Continue reading
NCAA Tournament Upsets & Bracket Buster List – 2010
Published March 18, 2010 | Thursday March 18th – Round of 64 (Day One)
The first 3 games of the day were all nail-biters with potential upsets. The biggest possible upset and near bracket buster was #2 seed Villanova, who were down all game to #15 seed Robert Morris. But ‘Nova took over in overtime, but Robert Morris still had a shot to tie for double OT in the end and missed it. BYU (#7) pulled it out in double OT over (#10) Florida after fighting back in both regular time and overtime.
- First Upset: (#11) Old Dominion over (#7)Notre Dame 51-50. Notre Dame had a 3 pt shot at the end to tie it, and it went in and out to lead to a put back layup at the buzzer, leading the Fighting Irish to an early defeat in the tournament. Many experts had picked Notre Dame to be a Cinderella going deep into the tournament in the ‘soft’ South bracket.
- Second Upset: #13 seed Murray St. beat #4 seed Vanderbilt 66-65 with a last second jumper for a HUGE upset and bracket buster for many. Murray State’s Danero Thomas hit a 2 pointer with 2 seconds left to seal the game and the huge upset against Vandy. This is the biggest upset so far.
- Near Bracket Buster: Baylor (my sleeper Final Four pick) was close and tied until 2 minutes remaining. Baylor went on a huge run to finish the game with a 68-59 win. It was the first win for Baylor in the NCAA tournament since 1950 (60 years).
- Third HUGE Upset: #14 seed Ohio takes down the Big East conference champion and #3 seed Georgetown 97-83. Ohio had a losing record in their conference and only reached the tournament by winning their conference tournament. Ohio’s Armon Bassett led the Bobcats with 32 points. This is the largest win of a #13 over a #4 seed in NCAA tournament history.
- Fourth Upset: #11 Washington takes down #6 Marquette in a close one, 80-78. Not many people picked Washington after they went on to win their conference tournament and steal a bid from the bubble teams. The Pac-10 has been horrid this year, perhaps motivating Washington to make a statement in the tourney. We’ll see Friday what fellow Pac-10er Cal has to offer against Louisville.
- Fifth Upset: #10 St. Mary’s over #7 Richmond 80-71. 7-10 games aren’t really upsets, since statistically, the #10 seed wins more often than the #7 seed. But a lot of people had Richmond as a sleeper pick to win a few games. Lebron James actually had Richmond winning 3 games, beating ‘Nova in his bracket on ESPN.
- Additional (technicallly) upsets: #9 Northern Iowa over #8 UNLV 69-66. Looks like the boys at UNLV got caught shaving too many points for their bookies and ended up blowing the game, not a real big upset at all. Also, ACC weakling #9 Wake Forest took down the over-talented #8 Texas squad, who clearly wanted to get home early to start prepping for the NBA draft. A lot of people had Texas winning a couple and taking down Kentucky as a big upset.
There were 7 upsets on the first day of rhe NCAA tournament, more than there usually are. This was overall the most exciting day of opening round games I’ve ever seen, especially the early games. There was almost another huge upset to go along with Georgetown, when Villanova BARELY squeaked one out against Robert Morris in a game they were down in for the entire game. On to Friday’s games….
Friday March 19th – Round of 64 (Day Two)
Friday was the day of the top seeds. Unlike Thursday, the top seeds were out to show their dominance. Duke, Syracuse, West Virginia and Ohio State all took care of business, dominating their opponents. There were only two upsets all day.
- First Friday Upset: #12 Cornell upsets #5 Temple 78-65. An Ivy league team hasn’t won a tourney game since 1998. Cornell had this one in the bag the whole game. Many experts and analysts like Cornell with ESPN’s Jay Bilas even picking them to his elite 8, and possible final 4 Cinderella.
- Second Upset: #10 Georgia Tech takes down #7 Oklahoma St 64-59. It was a close one until the end, with a turnover late sealing Oklahoma State’s fate. The Big fellas, LaWall and Derrick Favors were the difference in this mini upset.
Overall there were 9 upsets in the 32 first round games as things settle out and go a little more according to plan on Friday.
This post will be updated often to list the most recent upsets in the tourney each day.