[Music] f he [Music] a [Music] a [Music] a [Music] a a [Music] he [Music] a [Music] a [Music] a [Music] X [Music] [Music] hello and welcome in to the final day of the Quest for the perfect bracket show live I'm Mela Chester and we have two hours until one of the best days on the sports calendar that's also when brackets locked so if you have yet to fill out your bracket you have two hours remaining until the clock hits zero and brackets locked so scan that QR code on the leftand side and fill ou
t those brackets with the first four complete we have our 64 Team Bracket with Colorado State Wagner Grambling State and Colorado officially in we're going to break down the bracket until the very last moment this morning and the games all start today so let's take a look at the schedule today and tomorrow we have 16 games per day for the first round the second round is Saturday and Sunday the second weekend will be the sweet 16 and Elite 8 before we head to Arizona for the final four and lastly
before we get started let's take a look at the guests that we'll have on today's show we'll have Phil mattingley analyst on CNN who will break down his his bracket and talk some March Madness Anson Carter NHL analyst on TNT will show us his bracket we'll get Sharie Muhammad and CJ schaer backck our March Madness social leads Andy Catz our lead men's basket basketball reporter at ncaa.com and our lead bracket reporter at ncaa.com and TNT Sports Wayne stats he's been with us giving us the inside
scoop on data coming in on this year's brackets that all of us have been filling out that you have two more hours to get to Wayne how excited are you I know I'm already second guessing my picks and the brackets aren't even locked yet so we'll see we'll see how I do in the last two hours all right well let's go through the data stats tell us what we're seeing now that we're down to the very last day let's look at how fans are picking in their brackets yes so let's start off with uh brackets winni
ng the championship so again this is by percent so these These are men's bracket challenge game brackets by percent that have a team winning a championship so you can see here Yukon is above 26% which is the highest we've seen so far at least the high since I've been checking the data which I check a lot uh so 26% of brackets have Yukon winning the championship uh still pretty big lead everybody else you know nothing really changed there but you can see that they've been pretty steady going high
er and higher so I guess as people uh get more nervous as we get closer their brackets locking they're defaulting to the favorite which is not a bad choice of course we know only twice uh since 2014 the most picked team has won the championship that was a UNCC in 2017 and vova in 2018 and those are the years where the most popular pick was not very popular relative to other championships that we've seen uh Kentucky in 2015 and Duke and 2019 were the most popular picks we've seen but still 26% fo
r Yukon is very very high uh you can see here Houston and UNCC are two and three Houston uh was behind UNCC uh you can see that as we started looking at brackets uh once brackets are out on Sunday still up on Monday but you can see they kind of increased their lead a little bit to kind of become the not clear but still you can see the most second most popular pick behind Yukon but that Gap is still very very large which we expected you know nothing too crazy here uh but it's just kind of we expe
cted going on in um you can see here Marquette uh is the lowest uh one two seed uh so we can see again that's been the way since Sunday uh again it doesn't mean Marquette can't win if anything if that number looks familiar that's basically what Yukon was at last year when they won the shap was a four seed so again this is just by the people think it's going to win doesn't mean it's going to happen well let's take a look at how about percentage of brackets picking teams to head to the final four
I love looking at those numbers yeah I do too so this is I think this is almost just as fun uh as as the upset picks um you get to hear that uh Yukon is in the final four on almost 58% of our BCG brackets so obviously more than half that's pretty good for a a tournament that's been famous for a lot of upsets the last few years if you're in the final four and more than half their brackets that tells you how popular a team really is you can see here it's pretty much kind of a little bit down since
since Sunday but still that's a very very high number you can see the only team about 50% but Houston has been pretty steady as well uh above 40% um not surprisingly the one seeds they're one seeds for a reason they're the four most popular teams to make the final four uh we can see here Arizona is next in two seed but Kentucky still ahead of three2 seeds on the three seed line again not there's a huge difference between twos and threes but so notable that Kentucky all those Big Blue Nation fan
s voting for Kentucky uh to make the final four uh and again we've talked about this Mel all week but MCN still the tops and Rental pick both on the champ line and Final Four line uh we we saw this they're not the most popular upset pick in the first round but as you see as you go further and further down the bracket uh in making picks mcnees is is holding their upset uh picks down a lot more than like NC than NC State New Mexico is so I guess people are a little more loyal with uh MCN and other
ones uh I kind of you can see here like uh this high that means a lot of people are picking Yukon the retention rate so high down the ballot for the bracket Bas your MCN has that as well U people really sticking with them uh if you pick them the first round about half or 40% each round are picking them to continue to win which is very impressive for 12 SE so people are really on that bandwagon for b n this year you think that's just because they won a lot of games this season they've got 30 plu
s wins yeah I think so I think there's a couple things you're right it definitely is they won a lot of games you know not many teams have won 30 games this year so that that's definitely part of it uh they've won a lot you know in a row they're hot uh they have a coach that has proven he can win uh and also like people love the 12 FS uh last year there weren't any 12 fs and last year was kind of seen as maybe one of the strongest 12 seed lines we've seen didn't happen so if anything people maybe
are more like well now has to happen this year happened last year you know we're priming for a couple 12 over fives this year so I think that's I think it's a lot of things working together uh you know with it I think that's that's def part of it and of course you know MCN fan base probably helps out too um you see here like you know you got to go with your heart uh mcne fans are clearly going with their heart which is pretty cool um and uh so I think I think that's a big combo there of course
the way the bracket works out too is also part of it you know it's all about matchups as we know um in terms of why people pick uh whom they pick unless of course pick one seeds which is always uh always a good idea well I want to take a look at first round upset picks with the first round starting today but before we get to that for anybody watching feel free to drop comments uh in the comment section on YouTube Bleacher Report we'll get to them either throughout the show or at the end we'll ha
ve a large Q&A section so drop comments and we will get to them when we can uh stats let's look at first round upset picks and I also want to ask you what you think will be the biggest upset today oh oh man that's put on the spot there Mela okay so first let's go let's yeah first let's go through the upset uh pick so again this is for the first round percent so 90 almost 90% of men's Brack and challenge game brackets have UNCC advancing to the round of 32 that's that's what these numbers are say
ing so obviously the one seeds are getting picked very very high two threes down the line uh but I think the big news we saw this yesterday uh Kansas has dropped four percentage points since brackets opened on Sunday you know we know last year or yes uh the news that Kevin ker J's out for the tournament Bill self announced the other day so kind of know not too surprising there that they're dropping four percentage points um and you see obviously that means Stanford's up that same number here in
the top 13 seed which makes sense they were the top 13 seene Even if Kansas was going to be healthy Stanford is a very very good team very dangerous 13 seed but I think you know that news just made them more popular with people which makes perfect sense um bracket with that actually yeah I might do I might do that too we'll see uh and so obviously the 611s were three of them were the closest picked uh coming in uh to today but you see dayt in a 710 game has eclipsed uh the Texas Tech NC stick ga
me again these are these are very small margins so this isn't too dramatic but you know Oregon is still the top upset pick Mexico is second most popular you see here there are fourth and fif fourth and fifth most uh upset picks we've ever seen in terms of the percentage so that's the high very high numbers the only uh teams that have been higher have been picked better than 50% so you can see this is like very very elite company in terms of getting uh picked uh to make upsets uh Gonzaga and the
other ones were all in the 11 seed line as well Gonzaga uh was very popular a few years back in 2016 Michigan and vatch in 2022 uh so it kind of Mak sense you know power Conference teams are teams that know how to win teams that have won conference tournaments like Oregon New Mexico James Madison NC State have uh those are especially hot teams coming in makes sense nothing too shocking here but still cool to note just how um how back the numbers back it up uh James Madison is the second highest
12 we've ever seen in terms of winning in the first round at almost 45% of brackets piing jmu's get Advance the only uh 12 that was higher was I'm sure remember uh John rant and Murray State in 2019 were incredibly popular and they won not saying Jam is going to get done too but just it's good Cy to be in when you're with like 2019 Murray State um if you want to go further down you know mad State's the top 14 seed at 10% which is really good for 14 seed uh Western Kentucky is still our top 15 pi
ck ever so 8.32% of brackets have Western Kentucky advancing to the second round uh St Peters is our third highest 15 ever uh only second highest this year but third highest ever for St Peters of course you remember that name we'll know more them we know know about them uh and long wids our most pick 16 ever uh kind of the same story I think it's just you know it's always about what people remember recently people remember Princeton making the sweet 16 last year's of 15 St Peters two years befor
e or Roberts before that and 16 SE of course last year fdu one so I think people just it makes sense that people eony are are are primed and wanting to see that happen or hoping to see that happen again and try to try to get ahead of it uh this year so they can brag about it getting it right uh if that happens again this year I think that that's that's be the story here of why we're seeing these numbers so high these record numbers so high in terms of the 15 16 line um asked you yeah I was gonna
say I know I asked you what upsets you think will happen today to make it easier how about the upsets that you picked in your bracket for today yeah so I definitely think uh Oregon is going to get it done today against South Carolina uh again I'm not the I'm not the only one to do that that that's pretty pretty yeah that's pretty common uh and I you know I also have I think I believe NC State beating Texas Tech is also big one uh the one that is giving me the most pause that I might change to m
aybe during the show is you mentioned the KU Sanford game um apologies to all my family from Kansas but uh uh yeah that that's a that that's that's a hard one to to not get uh sucked into Sanford we said was already a good team and K's not 100% uh it kind of seems like it it could happen and that that's a the late game tonight so maybe maybe we have some weirdness happening around midnight uh with the Sanford upset um and kind of show you like more numbers about how that inj mcl's injuries kind
of changed people's brackets um so this is for the sweet 16 so just you know just a reminder so 92% of our brackets have Yukon advancing sweet 16 that's pretty high of course but the the newsworthy thing here is Gonzaga since Sunday so at you know when brackets are open on Sunday late Sunday night Kansas was in the sweet 16 on almost 45% of brackets Gonzaga was in the sweet 16 on 35 and a half% of brackets but look how the numbers have basically just flipped um so ginag is up almost 9% percentag
e points to 44 almost 45% and Kansas is down almost 10% the reason why those numbers aren't the same of course is because some people have maybe Sanford advancing out of that and becoming sweet 16 you know Etc so that's why the numbers don't match up in team these these two but you can see K is I mean losing 10 percentage points in you only a few days that that clearly that's because the injury um going into it and K was already kind of slumping coming in even even before then so um that's the r
eason behind that one on the on the sweet 16 line well really quick we got Caleb asking are we going to be streaming all day through the games unfortunately Caleb no we're not would love to but no we would love to I mean we could talk about this stuff all day but we will be stopping uh around around 12:00 today when rackets lock and games start so we will be on till the very last moment though and you can watch and stream all of the games on March Madness live and on ncaa.com so you can watch al
l the games unfortunately we just won't be with you Caleb but we wish all right stats I've asked everybody the last few days or last four days I should say yeah favorite March Madness memories so it's I ask you what are your favorite March Madness memories so you know not surprisingly I love I love sports I love college sports um we'll get some more of my jersey roots in a little bit um but I remember as a kid I used to go to Princeton games at at Jadwin Gym um especially with with my dad um and
one of the coolest things I wish I was you know old enough to really kind of savor that but uh in the 9798 season Princeton was ranked in the top 10 uh in men's basketball which you know it's I don't know if we'll see that again that' be great if we do um but it's and they got a five seed in the in the tournament um so you know that that was kind of the local connection it felt really cool if feel like you know a school 20 minutes for me was you know top 10 in the nation which is really neat um
but you know for me you know it's there's a lot of fun memories with it uh you know St Joe's leite8 run Oklahoma state that Elite eight Thriller was was a great memory watching that with with family and people screaming and and yelling at you know the late shot to to take down St Joe's was really fun um of course marel chers I have to remember that one against Memphis watch that with friends and again more screaming and yelling in that one as chers sent the game to overtime and Kansas won the c
hampionship in 2008 which you mentioned was the only time all four1 seeds made the final four uh so that that was kind of memorable Tournament of course with uh Steph Curry making L run with Davidson um but you know it's it's funny like as great as like the championship moments are uh and would be moments like Gordon hayward's shot that almost took uh took down Duke uh I it's all for me it's all about like the Cinderellas and surprising things that no one really expected uh of course you know UN
BC uh and the way they did it 20 points I mean that was against Virginia become the first 16 over one was just so so shocking um but you it's the other ones too I really do think one of the most impressive things uh at least in sports that I can remember was uh Butler making back-to-back title games uh that's just that's I it's I feel bad they didn't win it for them but that accomplishment just so hard because we're talking this year about Yukon repeating and how hard that is to repeat uh even f
or programs like Yukon in Florida um but you know for for Butler to to go backto back title game appearances is truly remarkable um but if I had to pick one just just one moment uh it has to be uh George Mason making the final four okay uh you know that really goes shows like that that when that happened that really felt like really anything is is possible in March Badness uh taking down Yukon uh was in you know I I still think that that shot uh that Yukon took at the end uh looked like it was g
oing in so and just seeing seeing the memory of course ver list a famous call uh by George the dream is alive will always uh always be special to me again and this is George I have no connection to George Mason they again no no Family Ties there I'm not from the area uh but you know seeing that you know 11c making the final four uh when it they were probably one of the last teams in the field uh and just seeing what they did with it taking down Michigan State UNC on their way to the final four i
n Yukon that that that's what March is about um and of course we've been very lucky last few years with more of those kind of surprising runs but yeah if I had if I had to rank them I think George Bas would be number one for me and 06 and fans you can also drop your favorite March M Madness memories in the chat we would love to see them when I think of mine stats you know I've never really had a dog in the fight my favorite teams are never really good in basketball which is unfortunate for me bu
t as a sports reporter and somebody who's loved Sports my entire life my favorite thing about sports has always been the stories and yeah the players stories and the players who were told that they couldn't do it and now are on this stage and that's just always been my favorite part of the tournament and it's something you don't get to see in a lot of other tournaments you don't get to see you know teams with with it being 64 teams and all these underdogs getting in and getting to experience the
se Great Moments a lot of other sports you don't see that because only the best teams and the superstars get in so that's my favorite part of March Madness is I love seeing the the small guys that were told they would never be able to play and the teams that were told that they would never make it on this stage and you know like watching Tobin Anderson and his interviews I love the emotional postgame interviews because I'm a reporter so I love to draw the emotion out of uh athletes so that's my
favorite thing to watch I mean I'm just so exciting excited it's it's one of the best tournaments of the year are you just going crazy right now yeah I I feel like we should do a bracket of the top uh of my top moments your top moments so we can see how similar our top our top moments are that would be fun I think we l a lot of a lot of Cinderellas I think a lot of Cinderellas I'm like I'm gonna only pick the underdogs in mind yeah yeah yeah yeah all right well for those who have yet to fill out
their bracket leaving it to the last minute I feel you I do it every year but the clock is ticking if you see it in the top left corner so scan that QR code to the left and for those that haven't yet here's a quick how-to video Welcome to the capital 1 NCAA March Madness men's bracket challenge the best way to play brackets when the NCAA tournament field is announced on selection Sunday brackets will open and you get to pick who you think will win every one of the the 63 tournament games feelin
g lucky choose the winners of each game yourself to fill out your bracket if you need more help use the ncaa's autopick tool matchup analysis which analyzes years of data to give you an edge use our preset stats and get a completed bracket in just a few clicks or you can choose from up to 20 different basketball stats to create your own custom criteria think defense wins championships crank up Steals and defensive efficiency then click calculate and let the numbers show you who to pick once you
have your bracket it's time to join a group play with friends compete against celebrities or even choose your favorite school's official group when the first round of the tournament starts your picks are locked in and it's time to sit back and root for the perfect bracket watch games in the March Madness Live app and you'll see pick icons in every matchup to tell you who you picked and a group view to see what your friend CH starting in the sweet 16 find out exactly what needs to happen for you
to win your group the path to the championship tool will break down every game and show your bracket's best case scenario finish in the top 1% of the leaderboard and you'll be entered to win this year's grand prize a trip for two to next year's final four get ready to play the NCAA March Madness men's bracket challenge all right stats we're going to take a look at the women's side and again drop questions in the comments and we'll get to them during this segment but stats let's start off with th
e most popular champ picks I'm assuming not many changes with South Carolina and Iowa on top yeah yeah so it's same as it as it's been since we uh looked these numbers on Monday you can see look how consistent the Gamecocks have been uh 38% uh the whole way through so 38.4 3% of our women's Brack and child team Brack have the Gamecock win the championship Iowa clearly a second favorite uh about 29 a half% um I mean that again that Gap uh even more uh just dramatic uh than we're seeing uh that yo
u know on the men's side especially when we consider how big that the top two are um but you know you know can't go wrong with LLC or Yukon two programs that know how to win LLC of course won on a three line last year uh their three seeds uh and they're ahead of uh two one seed which again is still pretty but again not not huge margins here especially for Yukon and Texas I mean that's very very small difference um but you you can see those two three seeds are very very popular in terms of winnin
g the championship U you know Indiana is most popular for but you can see how quickly we get down below 1% when you have two teams taking above 68% that doesn't leave much for everybody else uh but as we saw last year you know South Carolina was a clear favorite by people last year in in our bracket challenge game and we know what happened there it did did not work out in the end for South Carolina so upsets can do happen uh but you can see yeah clearly the top two uh picks right now are South C
arolina and Iowa all right how about going through some first round upset picks and then how that evolves through the sweet 16 and the final four I'm I'm always interested in the upset picks on the women's side because I feel like as you get further into the tournament it starts becoming a little bit more chalk a little bit less up upsets than the men's side so do the picks reflect that yeah so yeah as Autumn mentioned yesterday uh really for for most of the time you know for Cinderella the cloc
k strikes are probably around sweet 16 Elite 8 time 11 seeds uh Gonzaga in 2011 was the lowest uh seed a team to make the elite eight um but you know it does happen you know crated run surprisingly upset Iowa a few years back so it does happen it just it doesn't happen uh very often as much as as the men's game has it but in terms of winning the first round so just just again kind of reset so Iowa is picked to win uh their first round game at almost 99% of the time uh I love to be the people who
who don't have that happening and I guess yeah yeah um so but um you know of course they play the winner of the first four uh game today um so but it's just it's always really funny to see uh the people who could who pick against everybody else uh may maybe they're more Brave than all of us um but if want to go in terms of upset picks uh midd Tennessee uh is now above 30% for the first time since we checked in for an 11 seed that that's pretty good again that's program that has won before they'
ve had higher seeds than 11 before so they have good history there uh Green Bay is another program that in the past has won some games in the tournament they know how to win they're back they're good they play Tennessee which I know uh some people have gone very far in our bracket challenge like included yeah to lead eight yep um so you know that could be a tough one for some people to pick I I had tough on that one myself on farida G Coast I feel like we talked about them a lot the last few day
s so might as well mention it again uh they've won as a 12 seed the last two years they're back again as a 12 seed they play Oklahoma again this is nothing negative about Oklahoma uh you know in terms of that match that farl Coast has proven they can win as a 12 seed and you can see here that they've they've only uh risen uh each day again not a huge difference but when when from Wednesday to Thursday uh Rising almost half percentage Point that's pretty noticeable when there's no like you know i
njury news like we saw on the Kansas men's side um so that's kind of noticeable as well uh Marshalls top 13 seed coming down they of course play Virginia Tech which has injury issues um you know but also Marshall just also just a good team uh and we have other ones here Fairfield is also 31-1 they're ranked in the in the the national polls they're 13 seed so that could be a tough one for Indiana um Chattanooga is there top on the 14 line and 15 Cal Baptist and 16 texum Corpus Christie um so that
's how we go down the line here in terms of the most po picks but here's you can see as you get you know further down how uh the percentage of upsets really drops or it also shifts in terms of who people think could be the one to do it um so you can see here terms of this is making the sweet 16 so kind of funny that Iowa is uh picked more than South Cloud the sweet 16 at 94 almost 95% of brackets again I'd like to meet who don't have that yeah yeah um because that Iowa could have a tough not tha
t s line wouldn't either but Iowa could have a tough second round match up with either West Virginia or Princeton um but so in terms of double seeds to make the sweet 16 yonov is the top pick uh yov uh very good team another team that has found home in the rankings recently they play kraton of course team I mentioned earlier that had a surprising late run a few years back uh as similar position really in a 710 game in the first round so yovi maybe it's only's turn to do that at almost 20% Which
again for for women's bracket challenge game that's that's very high for 10c me sweet 16 uh so we can see maybe you know if we can get it done there uh Drake you know Drake's popular on the men's side and they're popular on the women's side as well on the 12 seed line in the sweet6 and above 10% of brackets that'd be pretty cool if Drake can kind of pull off a double here make some runs on both the men's and women's side um I love when two when both sides men's and women's have a run going and t
hey support each other it's a lot of fun yeah so of course usually we see that with Yukon of course and it could happen this year maybe they'll they'll do a double dip and win both men's and women's uh but especially you know when the schools that aren't your typical Powers kind of do it you know Princeton last year both men and women won their first round games uh Drake could be could be here for for the men's and women this year we don't know we'll see but yeah 10% that's pretty good uh for 12
Su to make the suet 16 um especially in the women's side um but I think this the final four stuff I think is is really fun um because we talked before B when you think about these sorts of percentages it really hammers home how popular South Carolina is that they're in the final four on 75% of our brackets that is just crazy not that there's a reason not to pick them it's just that it it really just kind of again restates how big of a favorite South Kina is as they should be they are undefeated
um but you know Iowa's still coming in 60% which is very very high they're the only two above 50% the only two really close to beating that but Yukon head of two1 seeds which is interesting uh towards make the final four but yeah yeah you know P Becker's back you know I think people are kind of expecting Yukon to kind to be back in the final four which usually seems like that was the that's always the default case that didn't happen last last year they might have to face Ohio State again this w
eek 16 to get it done maybe we'll get some revenge on Ohio State to make this we uh final four here but you see Ohio State there the two- seated in that in that Regional with Yukon um still getting picked at 14.68% of brackets um so not bad um you can see Tennessee we mentioned uh that tough first round match up against Green Bay uh Tennessee is higher than a lot of Threes fours and fives so uh we could see if Tennessee can get it done um but you know obviously the vs have a very rich history he
re um in terms of top Cinderella Marshall uh is above 1% to make make the final four and 13 seed line which again we've never seen a double digit seed make the women's final four yeah which I don't want to scare people away who knows may but also maybe say that means we're due for one you never know you could have a big upset uh Cinderella run this year and what do you think stats as the game on the women's side just continues to grow we have the emergence of more and more Superstars last year a
three seed one where we typically don't see that a ton on the women inside do you think it's just going to continue to get crazier as the game and the parody continues to grow like we might have completely different numbers next year yeah so so I kind of see it this way I think you look for ripples of you know for ripples are in some ways loud loud loud drops to see anything that kind of causes this stuff you know on the men's side for all they always talk about you know there's never been six
over one then it finally happened and now it seems like every year since then just gotten crazier and crazier minus 2019 which talked about Greg nigle that was more of a of a chalk heavy year but other than that there's a lot of upsets since then and the women's side I know we had that uh Harvard Stanford upset in 98 which was the first 16 over one Harvard was very very good team had you know NBA WNBA player on on roster and Stanford had injuries um but I think the big thing we're waiting on the
women's side is a 15 and 14 seed to win which we have not seen yet we almost saw a few years back lcu was in trouble um as a three seed so maybe it could happen uh this year um but yeah it's it's it's gonna be hard though because the three seeds as you mentioned are LSU and and and Yukon but two of them uh so it won't be easy NC State and organ state are the other three seeds um and the two seeds I think that's to be the big one is that the first time at 15 or 14 wins I think is just more proof
that you know there's more parody than we've seen we know that already just how you know all the Champions did you know Virginia Tech final 4un last year um LC W for the first time last year we we know that it's there we see it in the brackets see it in these upset you know Belmont playing off an upset uh in the woman's side um so I think waiting on that 15 seed is going to be fun because it's going to happen at some point you know it's just a matter of when uh so you know I'm not saying it's g
onna happen this year you could see here that a lot of people don't see it happening this year uh but if if you had if you had to go down uh the ones and two lines to see UCLA is the least picked to seed but still at 95.5% which tells you how hard it is to get to predict these upsets but it it it might happen who knows maybe this year Well stats I'm curious your take on this when something like that does happen you know year prior how does that affect your pick the next year so think of like Pur
due losing for three years in a row in the tournament on the men's side do you pick them because you think they're due or do you not pick them because they have history of it or on the women's side think Florida Atlantic they they had upsets for the past three years right do you pick them because they shown they could do it or do you not so I I think it's I think it's selective uh depending on the situation uh I I think with bdue I've kind of because it's happened so much it feels like they're d
ue to have kind of things going in their favor a little more this year on the men's side but again it's all especially with picking brackets you're always trying to convince yourself that you're right whenever you decide when you f your brackets when brackets lock you're not sure but you convince yourself that it could happen that you're going to be right yeah um see I I think and especially um the Purdue thing is interesting too because uh for a one seed they a lot there a lot of people obvious
ly doubt them valid reasons why um but to be picked to win the championship on less than than 8% for one seed that's very very very very low compared to the talent they have the pedigree they have coming from the Big 10 uh they've been ranked so high all year long but like you said M people I think are scared off by and understandably so for me personally I'm not scared off maybe it's maybe it's me being a fool and I I'll get burned on this but uh um you know but I I think I think that's why you
know when pick Purdue is when everyone is all POS about Yukon and Houston for good reason um sometimes you I look for Alternatives whether it's you know UNC or put on the one line or Arizona or Kentucky on the three line um the women's side I think it's it's especially in terms of picking upsets I definitely do believe it um you know team that proven that can win as a 11 or 12 like I'm talked about that's where the upsets usually happen um with farida GF Coast I it's I keep picking it until unt
il it doesn't happen and even then I'll still think it might happen next year if they're back at the 12 SE for GF Coast um but I and especially you know mentioned yesterday the the summit league has a good history of pulling off upsets whether it's South Dakota South Dakota state so that that's a big one um so you know I I think and I think you know it was a tough one yesterday for Columbia I think Columbia got out of the first four they lost to Vandy last night Vandy go run too um so yeah I thi
nk it's a little different depending on the situation you're in but I think on the women's side especially picking upsets teams that have proven they can get it done you know you think they get it again that's why we've seen on the women's Side Green Bay is very popular midd Tennessee is popular um because people recognize those names even if they're not a three seed or a four seed or a five seed um they're programs that have won the past and people remember what potential games or matchups are
you most excited for on the women's side yeah so I mean that that Regional that Iowa has uh is just so we talking about the al2 regional I I think that one has so many um really any combo would be really interesting there I think the number one I think for uh pre-final 4 at least would probably be Iowa LSU uh in a rematch uh we'll be we'll be appointment viewing for sure to get to the final four um so I think that's good of course really South Clin against anybody in the final four is going to b
e interesting because you know they played so loose and great all year they' look I mean they're they're they're just they're so talented and and they can they're a lot of fun to watch um so really any combination that we throw out them is going because they're going to try undefeated try to write what happened last year when they got upset in the final four I missed out going undefeated so I I think that could be kind of cool if I had to go with like a um terms of a fun kind of like if there's
a couple upsets we'll see you know how it could shake out um you know I think that you know it would be fun seeing if uh uh uh Florida Gul Coast could play against Fairfield um again I'm not saying that uh that both are going to happen but you know fairfield's uh 31- one um 13 seed it seems pretty dangerous I I know they you know the conference maybe do a match up but obviously they can win a lot of games um so I think th those big ones for me at least and kind of seeing how how they do um and h
onestly if you want like an upset for you know one or two seed we saw it last year to one seeds went out in the second round so there are upsets women's tournament like we like you so like you mentioned before more than we've seen before um all Miss did it last year uh they could face Notre Dame in the second round of course Miss has get by Marquette first um but that could be a tough one um for Notre Dame as good as they've looked lately um kraton unv against UCL could be really great second ro
und matchup um that could kind of bust brackets and kind of make maybe make ALB 2 a little less uh insane to to look at on paper um I think that fun Ohio State you Yukon could be fun and rematch from the sweet 16 last year they could be meeting again um yeah I mean there's just there's so Juju Watkins against anybody it would be fun to watch really um so I think it's going to be fun to see how how that one goes um yeah I mean there's there's truly so many um it it really feels like no matter wha
t whether there's upsets or not in the women's tournament depending how you how often they happen we're going to have so many great kind of matchups and seeds teams that could really do damage beyond what their seed says they should be advancing to well before we head to break another quick reminder to fill out those brackets if you don't know by chance there is a women's bracket challenge game so you could play that along with the men's scan that QR code on the left side but we're going to head
to break soon but before then let's take another quick trip down memory lane of March Madness in years past we're going to break down the 202 21 March Madness bracket the big thing this year of course was the return of March Madness after covid canel 2020 Wayne yeah it was great to be back filling out brackets but 2021 was a little different all games were held Indiana the first time that's happened with all games in one state the schedule is also a little different usually we have the first fo
ur on Tuesday and Wednesday in Dayton but this time we had all first four games on Thursday at Purdue in Indiana and of course the first and second round dates were Friday through Monday instead of the usual Thursday through Sunday then you thrown a no Duke in the tournament for the first time since 95 and it felt a little different for sure yeah but what were people talking about what were they excited about I mean March Madness and sports were back yeah people really thought gonzago would make
history uh at 26 and0 the Bulldogs were the first unbeaten men's team in March Madness since Kentucky in 2015 and the Bulldogs were very popular in the bracket challenge game they were in the final four in 71. 27% of brackets and the champion and almost 39% barely behind the incredibly popular Zion Duke year which we know being the most popular pick doesn't always end with cutting down the Nets just like Duke yeah and they got close Gonzaga almost got there getting this jayen Suggs buzzer beate
r to take out UCLA in the final four something scks for the win oh yes oh yes before running into a dominant Baylor Squad in the final just one of the greatest moments in March Madness but Wayne UCLA was a first four 11 seed is this the deepest run from a first four team that's correct it tie the record VCU was a first four to final four team in 2011 and to Butler in the semi-finals so first four team going that far definitely busted brackets but most of the damage in 2021 was already done by th
en number 15 Ora Roberts won two games and me this weed 16 only the second 15 at the time to do that uh number 14 abene Christian Top Texas two 13 seeds won number 12 Oregon State M Elite eight and four double digit seeds made the sweet 16 the previous tournament 2019 had a bracket go 49 straight games correct before busting how far did we get in 2021 yeah not as far all brackets busted by the 28th game which means no bracket made it to the third day in 2019 60,000 brackets were perfect after da
y one this year just 121 just crazy really when you have that few brackets left after only 16 games you hope the special ones can just hang on as long as they can and how long did they had did day two play out so we end day one with that 121 we then fell to 72 after popular Cinderella pick Georgetown lost to colado in a 125 matchup and it was just the usual string of drops from there though the final nail started when Ohio beat Virginia in a 13 over4 game taking us from 8 to three then Maryland
did the rest no solo bragging rights this year as the last three perfect brackets went down together on game number 28 when Maryland beat Yukon in a 710 game he [Music] a [Music] a [Music] [Music] welcome back to the Quest for the perfect bracket show joined by Wayne stats stats we're going to look behind the scenes here at our Techwood offices in Atlanta as the team is gear gearing up for the games to start at 12:15 we've got so much going on take a look at this room stats you've been in this r
oom so much goes into everything what are we seeing here yeah so this is our ins.com editorial team hard at work here and there's our social guys uh production team as well so yeah this this is where I'll be later today uh if there's room but I know we have a lot of lot of great people in there working very hard a lot a lot of long hours but you know this that's this makes so special um the days go by so fast you know watching all these games and and and and reacting to all the the upsets and bu
zzer beaters and and stuff like that it's it's I can't wait I'm ready to ready to get there now and watch it watch it with those guys yeah I think it's so exciting I've been in that room before I remember just being you know you're so excited you so much goes into it that a lot of people don't see not only into this show but into what we're seeing on NCAA and social media and all the updates during the game and it's just it's so much fun yeah B bouncing ideas off each other you know you know sh
Shar sharing memes you know laughing laughing together I mean it really is special like Mel you said like the with sports it's about the people um not just you know people on the court or on the field but the people you watch it with so it makes it really special absolutely and it's going to be a really good year I feel like that room has grown over the years there's more we're packing more people into that room yeah yeah yeah very very tight very tight space all right well let's keep going here
we have a really fun segment this segment is gonna be all about New Jersey stats you're gonna love this segment I know you are I Andy cat is actually Gonna Get Us started he sat down with Doug eer of St Peters all right Doug take me back a couple years ago uh what was it like to be a part of a couple of the greatest upsets ever n tourman history for St Peters Kentucky Purdue um epic upsets what was that like uh it was really lifechanging uh it was it was probably the best time of my life I thin
k it will be the best time of my life uh it's just it's so hard to put those emotions and that kind of feeling into words years later I still can't process like H how to describe what it was like in a way but I would say just to be part of something a team that was so connected and all of us having the same mindset of just winning games and playing together just having that connection and being The Underdogs and going against the best teams in the country and taking them down that's like it's su
ch a crazy feeling to to try to express like if you really just had a be there you had to experience it to really understand fully but I would say it's lifechanging you know I I I still say to this day I was more surprised Believe It or Not by the Purdue win than Kentucky uh because Purdue had a week to prepare for you guys I know it was in Philly so it wasn't a shock that you're in the sweet 16 right whereas we've seen upsets before maybe not to this degree but we've seen upsets in round one ho
w would you compare those two games so I would say going into Kentucky we bring it back to the the MAC Championship we win that game we're going to March Madness we're feeling good we're on a win streak and we find out we're playing Kentucky on uh selection Sunday we find out we're playing Kentucky we're going to uh Indiana We're as a team we're like oh like this is gonna be great like and our coach coach sha he's going we're not going for an experience like we're going to win like we're going t
o we're preparing to win we believe that we could win like he he got that right into our heads right away like instantly so that we building up to that we were just locked in like we're really going to win this game like we're gonna try our very best to go win the game we're not going there to have fun and just like mess around enjoy the experience like this was a game that another game on our schedule that we're going to go win so that was really the mindset at start after that Kentucky game af
ter we did we did over time we take down one of the best teams in the country now we're like we could play with anybody like this is this is March Menace this is what you dream of doing as a college basketball player especially Underdog being the Cinderella team like this is what people dream of so after that win we thought we could beat everybody going into Murray State take them down there they were on a crazy win streak too great team take them down and now going into purd like now like we're
going up levels but like it's all the same mindset all the same stuff like we're just going to play as best we can we're going to play together and the the same mind mindset is we're going to win the game so after we beat Purdue then it was like we're we're almost there like we're almost at the championship like we could really do it but uh UNC got us what was it like to know that you were part of busting brackets everywhere I think it's awesome I love it uh I used to make brackets growing up e
very year make brackets that was like the whole big thing and which team's going to win which game but definitely uh being that person that's going to ruin everybody's bracket is just it's hilarious I think it's awesome a lot of people mess around with me saying oh you ruined my bracket I'm like really you didn't know St Peters was gonna be Kentucky I always mess around with everybody but it's it's like the best feeling what was it like on campus maybe well you didn't get back in between so or t
he first two so the the second round of the sweet 16 yep so we got back to campus after we beat Murray State in Kentucky we get back and it's like we're we're getting treated like superheroes like the greatest thing like everybody they showed us a tremendous amount of support love from uh St Peters itself and just people around Jersey City like people just walking down the street saying you guys are amazing like congratulations all of it it was so like it was such a a great time to be there and
experience all the love and the support that we had from that that community and if there's advice that you would give the next round of St Peters and obviously fdu did it the next year uh in a similar kind of school but what would it be that you would give in terms of um you know advice for that next team like a St Peters yeah see I would I would say there there's a bunch of things that that need to be like right at the moment but i' say the main thing is just the the chemistry and the connecti
vity and like I'm not playing for myself like I'm playing for my teammates and my teammates are playing for me the coaches are coaching for us we're playing for them like it's all one big unit working together there's not one person who's beating these teams especially at that level Underdog team playing against a bigger a higher level school one of the best teams in the country we're playing like almost our perfect game and like we're down two it's like you need to do everything almost perfect
and the way to do that is really just being completely together and having as best chemistry as you can have and just and just play to win really all right awesome dog I appreciate your time yeah of course thank you for having me all right stats well I mentioned you're going to love this segment because you're a New Jersey native Me Maybe not so much I'm from New York everybody watching just needs to know all of that but we've had the recent phenomenon of New Jersey schools just wrecking havoc i
n the NCAA tournament so it's my job to talk about the segment so we're going to do it but stats tell us where you're from in New Jersey and then we'll get into the history of New Jersey schools in March Madness yeah so I'm from sumerset County uh which is in Central Jersey a true new jerseyans know yes there is a central Jersey uh and I'm definitely from there uh so I take pride in that um yeah so I this the last few years has been really special you know Cinderella has looked a lot of differen
t uh looked very different through the decades you know whether it's UNBC George Mason Villanova winning at all an 85 as an eight seed but the last few years Cinderella uh has not been able to pump their own gas and they stop by the shore on weekends and holidays uh so yeah it's it's been very Jersey es I think especially from what makes it special for Jersey is that it's been on the upset side you know it's one thing if we're talking about like ones and two seeds winning but it's been it's been
the cinder Rel that have been so special um you can see here uh St Peters uh showing State pride uh when fdu took out Purdue come the SE the second 16c to be to one um so St peters's you know making sure people are aware about uh New Jersey basketball um sorry Mel I know I know New York uh hasn't but you know Wagner Wagner looked good uh so maybe Wagner can can join yeah make a Tri-State uh a thing of next year when Wagner pulls the stalker um yes I can see here St Peters of course uh shouting
out fdu uh's win last year um and then uh you can see another one of course uh also Princeton last year uh took out Arizona Princeton 15 seed uh advancing all sweet 16 that's three years in a row we've had a 15 seed in sweet 16 and two of them are from New Jersey uh so you know show we may we may seem small but we're not we saw Doug eater takes a lot of confidence uh I'm just hearing him talk you you know he's from Jersey you know you know just that you know he's got it um yeah it's it's been so
special and not that this has been you know the first time that jerseys kind of busted brackets or G on these March Madness runs um as cool as it has been there is kind of a more Rich history than I think may people are aware of uh especially you know people who are new to March Madness or just check in the last few years um so give you an idea this is uh Bill Bradley uh Princeton we mentioned a few times both the men's and women side P few days uh Princeton uh led the Tigers to the 1964 final
four and was mop which is really cool because um they did not win the championship that year and he was still named mop which is pretty impressive uh of course uh he also later became a US senator uh so very very accomplished person there uh you know winning on the court and uh and getting a eled um so yeah I mean prinson made a final four run which is really really cool to see uh in 1964 again but you know they weren't the only ones um know you know Ruckers uh in 76 people always remember India
na they're the last undefeated men's Champion but that same final four Ruckers was undefeated going in to that final four as well um so you know they got close winning championship in 76 uh and the closest though was 1989 Sean Hall made it all the way to the title game as a three seed uh and fell to Michigan in ' 89 and overtime overtime so they were really really close so so we've gone very very close before win the championship uh in terms of you know making runs uh as were more expected or pr
e-modern era especially with Bill Bradley uh making the final four with the Tigers but the last few years has been about Jersey but it's more more more of the bracket Buster variety than you know your typical you know top runs yeah exactly um so of course I mean these headlines are just great I mean talk about a great combo of headline and and and a photo here how Pete it is in spoiler makers uh turn away Purdue fans I'm sorry I I you know what this I feel so bad we've been talking about support
Purdue uh all you know so much about all these these these upsets they've had um but you have to admit that's a good headline um and and also you don't worry Purdue I'm I'm picking Purdue to win it all this year maybe that's a maybe that's a kiss of death I don't know um but of course yeah of course in 2022 St Peters uh made tournament history became the first SE to make the lead eight they took down Kentucky Murray State and Purdue uh here's the crazy thing less than 0.7% of our brackets had t
he peacocks lead eight no I was not one of them I had the losing to Kentucky in the first rounde I know yeah I I mean again I love to meet these people and I wonder how many of them are actually just you know alums or or from the area I'm Runing for or just like the nickname peacocks you know we mentioned nicknames and mascots maybe it was like the the nickname peacock if you were one of them let us know in the comments and no lying only truth over here yeah I yeah I mean truly just remarkable s
tory and one of my favorite stats from from that um so 3% had St Peters beating Kentucky in our bracket challenge game 6% at Kentucky winning it all I mean that just that that's just crazy to think about that uh just in terms of how how how hard is to win six games no matter who you are in in a single tournament but still twice the people had that happening for Kentucky then St Peters beating Kentucky in the first round um just truly remarkable uh and of course next to the St Peters you have fdu
I me that that that expression is just just perfect um you know made their own history FD the next year uh the shortest team in division one basketball uh upset Purdue and 7 foot4 Zack Edy uh again that's that's you know no Shader Zack Edy just it's hard to not get caught up in the height height thing there um Zach SL a giant yeah exactly um but 2.3% of brackets had that upset fdu upsetting Purdue uh you know to talk going into last year no one expected it of course um but uh you know fdu of co
urse uh very very good team they they were the first uh first four team in terms of the aqs to win a game in round of 64 they did that last year so you know you know you watch these games Tuesday night Wednesday night you know that's why you watch these games you never know what's going to happen you know there could be you know some up you know gramling Wagner um you know it seems like the ones these this year seem even better than last year initially but that's again that's when you're uh that
's when the upsets happen is when you're most confident that they're not going to happen is when it happens um but you know fdu of course had a great job a great uh win there against Purdue to to stop to shock everybody um so just great moment there yeah yeah so so Princeton uh took down number two Arizona and Missouri to make the sweet 16 uh that was a third year in a row 15 made to the second weekend uh which was just a remarkable run uh Princeton team that you know if they made it this year w
ould have been a popular upset pick I think Yale as a 13 very very dangerous yeah Le has good history well those IB schools uh both men's and women's side have a good history of pointof upsets Carnell made the sweet 16 uh in 2010 Harvard and Neil have posted up wins uh you know Penn another team made the final four run this is you know pre you know modern era of 85 of course but uh still you know great history in the Iva League um Princeton was the latest we every REM Princeton upsetting UCLA in
the 90s uh in in the famous backdoor cut which people always forget about that back door cut is they did it twice the first time it didn't work so you went right back and did it again and then got the layup the second time that you know that good show you just keep going at it and you know good things happen um and this year of course we have St Peters is back uh so they're the only Jersey team we we had a chance to get a couple more like I said Princeton was a top seed in in Ivy Madness they g
ot upset by Brown uh Brown kind of of a mini Cinderella run in the IV league tournament they almost made it to the to the field of of 68 uh but Yale shocked him at the buzzer um which because she goes to show how how hard it is to win even in a four team bracket how hard it can be um CN Hall also also almost made it uh this year but this year it's all about the peacocks again so not surprisingly uh you know people remember the peacocks from a few years back uh they're again at the 15 line which
they won before uh so I mentioned previously when they upset uh U they were picked uh 3% of brackets and our game had them being in Kentucky this year 7.25% has St Peters beating Tennessee so I mean that's more than double from two years ago um so St Peters you know working their own magic again kind of put be on alert there to make another run um so yeah it can it can happen um how about final four so everyone talked about St Peters Mak lead y they Fel they fell to UNC in the lead eight but jus
t getting there first time ever what about getting the next step making the Final Four so 0.48% of brackets have the peacocks in the final four this year but that's ahead of Nevada Colorado those are two 10 seeds you know some 13 seeds are ahead of so so they're right there with them you know uh hey any anything's anything can happen you know the those Point 0.48 uh percentage picks that's higher than Yukon was by percent pick to win it all in our in 2014 bracket challenge game so you know the o
dds actually are more for at least towards of picking odds percentage are higher for St Peters than it was for Yukon to win all in 2014 so again anything is possible I do not want to doubt St Peters they Prov me wrong before um I I I did pick Tennessee to win like a lot of people did but I think a lot of people yeah but I'll tell you if they get off to like you know a 10 start or 50 start have have the lead you know at the at the halftime under 16 I think people will be starting to starting to w
onder a little bit you know stats the more I'm thinking about this it's really blowing my mind because it's crazy enough that we've had all of these upsets the past few years like last year you know taking down Purdue another 16-1 upset like that was so crazy but then the fact that they're all from Jersey is just super weird like it's kind of freaking me out a little bit yeah yeah it really is it really is bizarre it's kind of thing where it's it's it's it's the it's the the magic of of March an
d coincidences you know um not say you know obviously teams are very talented we've talked about how how much par there is in college basketball I mean who knows maybe maybe the next few years a different state takes over I don't know you know you know we'll have some some different states maybe maybe New York will have a run uh this year or next year with with with some of the schools um yeah yeah again it's not it's not just fact it's Jersey winning it's Jersey 15 and 16 seeds are winning that
's truly the remarkable thing about it yeah yeah I mean don't bet against those Jersey schools I guess I'll say it I mean you guys you guys have that but New York has what stats we've got better Bagels it's the water it is the water yeah yeah re rear ones know it's about the water no one can argue that our bagels are better all right well that was a fun breakdown cats has another Cinderella sit down check out cats with Tobin Anderson and when we're back uh we'll have more for you guys all right
Tobin got to go back to your fdu time period when you saw the bracket what gave you the belief that fdu as a 16 could beat number one Purdue well was all about the style right so like we knew we're we're fairly athletic we're fairly quick we could press and we knew that wouldn't bother like teams like Houston um Kansas people like that we kind of thought maybe Purdue being the Big 10 being maybe not is experienced in the back court we could cause him problems just with the matchups you know and
now obviously you got Zack Ed so that's that was a major major problem we're like well maybe we could just cause some problems and Zack will still score 50 but we'll try to keep it close or something like that so I think I think we thought the style might cause some issues I we had really good guards so I thought that might you know listen it it was going to be hard no matter who we played we just thought of all the we knew we're going be 16 seats of all the one seats we could play we thought th
at'd probably be the best match up for stylistically what's it like to know that you've busted brackets everywhere where I get reminded about it quite a bit this there's a lot there's a lot of people who still talk about it I mean it's like you know I I've tried to move on for the most part but especially as we get closer back to March now and we're we're playing and and the tournament's starting up and all going it's like you hear a lot listen I love it it was great experience was it was a grea
t thing and you know they call it the best the biggest upset in NCA tournament history so um we're happy about that it was exciting um so yeah no was it was a great listen it was a great a great great thing and and um yeah you won't ever forget it and our our players never forget it and FD will never forget it so it was it was awesome if you were filling out a bracket last year and I don't know if you did um would you have picked fdu to beat Purdue of course what kind of question is that of cour
se you would of I didn't I did not fill out of bracket um but I would have had to pick FD over Purdue so uh yeah um you know it's funny when you get in the tournament like like you're so immersed in what your yourself in your next game and stuff I didn't even really look at the brackets Beyond like not even sure I knew you know what was beyond you know if the Ford Atlantic Memphis we win the first game we get to Purdue be be Purdue well that's G to be a hard task to do so I mean I really hadn't
looked that far ahead at the whole bracket so but I would definitely would have picked FD over Purdue uh going forward now we've seen it twice what are the key elements for a 16 or maybe even a 15 like St Peters to knock off a one or a two well I think the Style part is huge you know I think to be to play a style it's a little bit different whether it's a whether it's you play a lot of zone or you play or you press or you have uh unbelievable quickness or speed or just to be different you can't
beat a team that plays the same as you you can't beat them um that's kind I think why why ivy league teams why why is Princeton hard to play against in the NCA tournament because they're a little bit different than the teams they play against so I think the style part's important and I think just a team that comes in with a lot like a little chip on their shoulder you know trying to prove themselves you know I think St Peters year before last year chip on her shoulder trying to prove themselves
trying to trying to uh when you get a chance to to take on the big boys and and do that that's as an awesome thing but I I think I also think having um we had two fifth year senior guards having experienced guys especially now with the climate the way it is if you got a little bit of experience a little bit of um you know our our guards had been in the ncaa's division 2 for they've been in sweet 16 every year so they were used to NCA games now not playing in front of 20,000 people on national TV
but I think having some experience goes a long ways and lastly what about when you get a lead late how do you guard against getting tight yep uh even though you may have the crowd in your favor as the underdog how do you finish it off that's the thing I think was most impressive for our guys was how they just played loose and they made plays and and they they weren't afraid of the moment at all because like you know as a coach you're you're just waiting for something to go wrong you just think
oh hell you're you're up by you're up by five with a minute and a half what what could go go wrong here you're up by by two with eight seconds to go what could go wrong here so you just got to make plays like at the end of the day you got to make plays make shots and and um what I mean it's a great opportunity for guys to to I mean our guys will remember that the rest of their lives so it's just a great opportunity to to cement themselves in the in the history of NCA basketball so you know you g
otta go play free you gota make plays and and enjoy the moment awesome thanks tolin thanks Andy [Music] n [Music] a [Music] [Music] welcome back in everybody we have another behind the scenes look at our event operations center this time and all the people that are behind the March Madness Live app making sure we get feeds streams all those games that you're watching all critical work for the success of the app if you don't have the March Madness Live app you can download it for IOS and Android
at in the App Store and we'll have the QR code for you shortly but uh yeah these are look at how many people go into making that app happen it's a great app yeah it's it's great and you know what the the the alerts we get the quality is great um you know it's it's fun if you have to Subway go to the bathroom don't worry you'll get app alert if a game's gone down to the to the wire and upset um seeing in real time behind the scenes of the conversations of like you know you know how what game to f
eature you know just and watching it happen in real time is just is it's it's such a treat well make sure you download the app ahead of the game starting at 12:15 we have less than an hour now if you see that clock in the top left corner 49 minutes stats until brackets locked so things are getting really exciting make sure you scan that QR code and fill out that bracket you got 49 minutes to fill out your bracket before they lock and games start but stats and I sat down with CNN's Phil maddingle
y who broke down his bracket let's take a look at that and we welcome in CNN's Chief domestic correspondent and anchor Phil maddingley to the show f thank you so much for coming on oh thanks so much for having me well we want to go back to your college days a little bit we know you played baseball at Ohio State I personally cover college baseball so I would love to hear about your experience I was um really great at helping the team GPA um I I warmed up the right fielder I was probably among the
best to ever do it I would humbly suggest um no it was you know I'm a I'm an Ohio State Alum and a DieHard Buckeye big I assume we're going to talk about the NIT win uh against Cornell just really focus on that for most of this um but uh I mean M you you I'm pretty sure you played uh college sports as well and I think you know it was just uh it's an insanely uh labor intensive experience and I don't think people necessarily understand uh just how much work goes into it it's why I'm a big fan of
athletes actually getting paid right now um but it's also they're my best friends still to this day all the guys that that were on my team are still the guys that I'm on text chain I was asking them for suggestions as I was filling out my bracket uh we used to go to Las Vegas for the opening weekend uh of March Madness every year like 15 of us um so I think it's the the camaraderie as well as I think I still have some free Nike gear uh from those days are probably the best part of the whole exp
erience yeah everybody was always getting a gear Christmas right just exact loaded up on Ohio State gear do you still follow college baseball at all I do I do um I'm it's especially now because you can watch it on TV when we were playing you would maybe get um one or two you get kind of big 10 tournament games would be the only ones that were televised um now I mean I think probably 15 or so Ohio State's first games uh first 20 games were on TV so I try and watch it whenever I can I got four kid
s so my sports watching is fairly limited during the week but uh big fan of the the kind of new I think this her second year bill mcel and his coaching staff um but I just love I love college baseball I love summer college baseball up in the cape places like that um I'm so jealous that you get to cover it I would pay good money to be in Omaha uh every summer I think that's by far in a way my favorite sporting event that I've ever attended yeah I I have to say me too I'm maybe you can maybe you s
hould come down to Omaha this year and I'll see you there I'd love to I'd love to well we'll talk about March Madness and basketball since that is the whole point of the show what are some of your favorite March M Madness memories um this was a fun all that you guys might ask about this and like going down memory lane was the absolute best I think my first was the one that always sticks out in terms of the first one that really Pops to my head was the Princeton UCLA the back door I want to say i
t was like 96 I could name like everybody on that UCLA team uh Cameron Dollar Toby Bailey one of the abandon Brothers like everybody I can't name a single person on Princeton's team with the exception of Pete Carell coach um that was all that's the first one that really kind of captured me when I was a kid um my number one though by far was uh the Ron Lewis 3 descended to overtime I think it was an ' 06 probably 06 or yeah no it was 07 it was a team that went to the to the championship game agai
nst Florida for Ohio State um it was St Patrick's Day I was in Boston at GR in grad school a bunch of my old teammates came up for that weekend and we're in a bar and you can imagine uh younger uh no kids uh at a bar in Boston on St Patrick's Day watching Ron Lewis tie a game up and they've been losing for like 12 13 minutes straight in the second half um that was the one like that was the for Ohio State fans that team and that progression from that team which you know three four years before wh
en I was in college we barely went to basketball games all of a sudden Greg Odin Mike Conley dayquon like that whole crew came in that The Fad five as they called him at the time that was probably uh my favorite uh Homer moment I guess you could say theaa tournament good stuff all right well we're going to take a look at your 2024 March Madness bracket so I want you to take us through some of your upset picks your final four and your Champion I'm gonna be honest I'm not uh very brave in in my pi
cks here and this is not a this is not this is not a new thing like you're always gonna have to pick an8 n to beat a one I feel like um you're probably going to try and ride with uh you know a 10 or 11 the the main I I think kind of upset team that I have moving forward is New Mexico it's painful to watch the son of a guy that I watched when I was growing up uh in Jaylen house Eddie House's kid um now be like the dominant player one of the dominant players in the tournament it's like really unde
rscoring how old I am um but I just I love the the way that they play um and I think that they I think if got them getting to the Elite 8 I believe yeah um and that same bracket that West bracket I'm just not a big I like Carolina's team I I I love Armond bot like he's I want my kids to be like him um to some degree but I I think Alabama is uh I I'm I'm big on the SEC this year I got Tennessee going far to so I've got Bama there are fours it's not a huge upset um but I've got Bama going all the
way to the final four um and actually youc have getting knocked out by Mississippi State early on I just think the SEC between the SEC and the Big E like the brand of well they're playing is just um I think it's above everybody else we wanted to point out that you took Bama farther in your bracket than super Bama football fan Caitlyn Collins you know this is why like I love Casey because she is just as she reports she's going to tell you the facts she's going to not go with her heart um if Ohio
State actually made the tournament uh I would have them winning the championship regardless but you know Caitlyn just as she is at 900m every night really just giving it to you straight no matter how she feels yeah it's crazy it's like if you don't if what if Bama does win now now you don't look like a big fan right yeah it's really I mean frankly I I I think less of her because of it um but like you're you're a Georgia grad though right like have you how is that even gonna have you I worry abou
t your interactions with Collins because when it comes to football there's like I can't talk to her um it's painful I I love her we sat right next to each other a very small booth and we were covering the White House together a few years ago and I can't think more highly of her as a human being but goodness gracious during football season she insufferable yeah I told her that it was a really good thing that we were talking about basketball that's that's all just ask her how ask her how Nick sain
's doing um just see if you can get her to cry immediately yeah we're still going strong with Kirby Smart over here so exactly exactly all right well how about take us through your final four and your thoughts behind your Championship pick so I I gave you bam already I love well I mean Marquette is entirely dependent on Tyler coic I I wish Shaka I need a little bit more of a definitive answer out of Shaka I think he was saying like we expect him to play but we're gonna go through like I need to
know I don't I'm not I don't gamble but like I just I feel like for bracket perspective I need Shaka to be a little bit more candid about things I just I'd love that conference I love how theyve played all year um and so I've got them going I I got to put a big 10 team in there and obviously the the far and above uh best Big 10 team is Purdue you know you get I'm a little wary of how they've been in the tournament the last several years but I feel like painters crew kind of they're they're veter
an they spread the ball around a little bit they move it better than they have before uh with Ed in there so feel good about them but guys like what are we even talk it's Yukon it's I'm not totally sure there's ever been it's been a long time since I've had a season where there is just so far and away a singular best team uh in the entire NCAA and you know there'll be a great story and great for you guys to cover if if they get knocked off but shoot that is a that is a good team and then you got
Hurley going to bars after games like that's just like you can't that's a Vibe right there that you can't really argue with Phil you're making me want to change my my champ pick you didn't pick Yukon you know it's it's tough you don't want to sometimes sometimes you don't want to pick the the team that everybody else is picking I feel like that's my worst like when I do brackets it's always like I overthink it I try not to wait Wayne do you have Yukon no I have Purdue but that's just me being a
contrarian I think just to get off what everyone else is picking just to be different not I don't but yeah yeah that probably burned you a little bit like if you're putting Yukon and Purdue in the same gym I mean well granted I'm fresh up the big tournament so maybe I'm a little bit biased here in how viewing Purdue but like I just feel like Connecticut runs them off the court um oh gosh I know it's it's it there's there's no right or wrong answer until the games actually happen and then you're
like of course the answer is right there the whole time exactly oh I knew that I I totally knew that I just didn't totally well pH it was it was great to have you on thank you so much wait Mel who do you have winning it all so I'm revealing my my bracket today are you not supposed oh sorry am I not supposed to like bar right now it might change actually so who knows right now I actually have Kentucky uh I'm big on the I have Kentucky taking down Yukon in the title but I might I might switch it
because now you have me in my head over here see I I have I'm weird with them like I feel like they're a team I wouldn't be surprised if they did they obviously have the talent for it but I just I'm I there's been games this year where they just it's true I don't know I love you were saying the is a gauntlet so I think I Wasing a little bit more into their schedule like oh SEC is pretty good but I don't know I pick I pick my bracket based on gut picks so yeah I mean like I I I feel like there's
no right way to do it like Wayne I think you wrote something about like here's how people win brackets in the past and it was something like you gota you got to pick at least like 50 games or something like that correct I I'm like I've never been in the same zip code Meanwhile my wife who went to Vanderbilt does not watch basketball could not care less about any of this stuff uh will every single year uh have like a dozen more picks correct than I do so I've just kind of given up I mean I I gott
a say Phil you're you see you don't have a lot of upsets but I you have some really cool different picks you know you have you know I w't say you have chalk at the end but you have some you know out the I like the the the guts you have you know you have Houston going out to Nebraska which is kind of different a lot of people you mentioned UNC going out to Mississippi State uh so give yourself more credit for uh for taking some chances here yeah you know I like you Wayne um and so I will admit th
e the Houston thing one I'm I the the championship game was painful uh watching them get absolute run I feel like they've got what three or four guys that are out for the season that would be starters or at least kind of top six or seven rotation and I just feel a little bit weird about that Nebraska is like a purely Kay tominaga pick like I love him yeah I remember the first time I W I saw him it was probably two years ago uh it was like randomly a Big 10 Network game in the middle of the regul
ar season I remember being like wow it's like this beginning of the second half why do they have their bench Walk-Ons in and then I realized like no that kid's a stud um and so I think like that's I'm probably a little biased a little biased on that one but I you know we'll see how it goes the headband doesn't lie I like it I like it well Phil our show is Called Quest for the perfect bracket so you're in it you know the odds what what are the odds like not great if I were to pick a grain of sand
off the Earth and then you also tried to find one the odds of it being the same grain of sand are better than a perfect bracket that's daunting um and yet we do this every single year without fail uh and with sheer Joy it's a very bizarre world we live in yeah absolutely but it's so much fun so Phil thank you so much for joining us we appreciate it thanks for having me guys I appreciate all right and Phil was recently named CNN's Chief domestic correspondent and anchor so you can catch him all
this year on CNN covering Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and 2024 conventions and political events Phil thanks all right well that was fun stats another fun celeb breakdown and we've got more of those later but we're going to bring in CJ and share again for for those who don't know these are our March Madness social media leads the guys posting everything you see on March Madness guys we're under an hour now until games start how excited are you does it feel like Christmas morning wel
l I don't know about you but that's exactly what I was about to say it feels like Christmas morning um we are getting hit with so many celebrity brackets right now we're so excited to show you guys who we have planned from I guess the next 30 minutes next two hours probably at this point it's absolute am him in here we're literally putting up one as we speak anybody who wants anybody who wants to see what Michael Phelps has on his March Madness bracket it has just gone out anybody who wants to s
ee it go check it out yep still still loads on Deck as well so plent what are you guys seeing on social anything good as we gear up for the games uh lots of people getting excited and trying to call their shots with their upsets um just a little bit ago uh earlier this morning we actually posted a post just asking people to call their shot now who they think is going to pull off the best round one upset uh a lot of different answers yeah I think you're seeing a like reflected towards the actual
numbers you're seeing a lot of MCN a lot of James Madison a lot of New Mexico so the trends match with social to say the least that makes sense well how about you guys you got any takes you're you're hearing what all the fans are saying but what do you think what are some upsets you're h for to lock in those those clip me takes I'm ready to lock it in I'm not backing off MCN is going to beat Gonzaga today okay yeah I think I think the two yeah yeah I think for me still James Madison to the Sweet
16 so we're we're standing on business here we're not we're not we're not letting go of our picks here all right what else are you guys excited for I know it's a really busy few weeks for you but what are you most hyped up about it is it is busy but it's the good kind of busy like we've worked really hard all season to get to this point um and this is kind of the point for us where it really starts to pay off um it's very rewarding to see how many people are into what we're doing uh so just in
general I think that's what I'm excited for yeah and then for me it's just like working in a room that you guys saw earlier full of great people great Vibes great energy and and just enjoying all the mo big moments with everyone else and being able to put that out to the world really I think that's one the underrated aspects of especially being specifically in this room like you just mentioned is a lot of the uh real-time reactions to the moments that you're going to see on social it happened he
re first so it's it's really cool to take be a part of yeah what are some of the for everybody who is watching this tell us the social platforms that they all need to follow during the tournament yes it is at marchmadness mbb find us on X Facebook uh Instagram threads threads if you're still using threads whoa find us on threads find us on Tik Tok obviously YouTube You're you might be watching us on YouTube but follow March Madness on YouTube as well yeah yeah there's gonna be plenty of great co
ntent going out pretty much all day every day of the time and it started early this morning again I cannot stress enough how many celebrity brackets are going out before the games tip off please go look at them and how many how many people are sitting theirs in at the last minute we just got Caleb Williams in about 20 minutes ago so like never we just never know and we still have the uh we still have people like Chuck coming in uh we have a number gonna say who else do we have yeah please uh Chu
ck is coming soon I I think if I remember correctly you're going to want to see where he what he did with auburn on his bra oh no oh no uh chip and Joanna uh coming through and a bunch of other uh TNT Talent yes and Snoop Dogg and oh Sno came in last minute at 3:00 a.m. last night so Snoop Dog pulled through I feel like you guys outdid yourself with the celebs this year I we completely agree yeah Snoop Dogg is kind of the because he he came through for us last year and was kind of the poster boy
of our celebs and I guess everyone decided to come through this year in honor yeah who was your favorite this year from both of you because of the timing we had of Snoop Dogg coming in so late he might be my favorite one cuz we we had just we had just gone about our business assuming he wasn't going to come through for us and then late last night he sends a message said hey guys I'll send mine tonight or tomorrow or something and we were so excited getting that news yeah for me what's what's yo
ur comedian's name Bert it's not my comedian this comedian last night we posted what's his name it's Bert something oh you don't even somebody else in the room say the nameer this man a picked like what two or three 16 seeds to win he's got 15 CS of that it is literally the definition of chaos and my favorite com my favorite comment that I've seen so far is like Bros picks will be generational if this somehow happen somebody said he really is a comedian yeah somebody yeah he really is a comedian
he really is a comedian all right guys oh go ahead stats yeah I was going to say I feel like with those upsets you guys are great at the meme do you guys have memes cooking in your heads already depending on situations that could happen absolutely we we have one that's going out very soon of uh just putting into perspective how everybody thinks their bracket looks right now versus how it's going to look by the end of today yeah yeah we'll have we'll have these thoughts like in November sometime
s like we just be like okay store that to the side you know like are just meme factories meme factories I'm excited to see them all throughout the tournament guys before I let you get back to work because I know you have so much to do really really fast give me one overarching prediction for the tournament from each of you and then I'll let you go share not gonna back down for it from it Yukon goes back to back first time since the Florida Gators best team of the country all right I'm gonna say
there will be multiple double digit seeds in the sweet 16 spicy I like that take all right guys well get back to your busy busy day and know you have a lot going on good luck with the tournament and we thank you so much for joining us throughout the course of the last four days we had so much fun with you guys thank you appreciate you guys all right well stats and I sat down with another one of those celebs this time we had Anon Carter NHL analyst on TNT let's take a look at that we welcome in A
non Carter former NHL player former Michigan State Alum and current analyst for NHL on TN to the Quest for the perfect bracket show Anson thanks for joining us we're so excited to have you on yeah thanks for having me anytime I could pump the green and white I'm all for it I figured that would be what you said so you played hockey at Michigan State student athlete there just tell us about your experience before I go into it maybe I'll just stand up a little bit so you guys can see Jersey just yo
u know that it actually doubles as my pajamas as well too when I'm sleeping here in my house but you know it's it was by far the best four years of my life you know playing 11 years in the National Hockey League playing a year in Europe uh but the four years I had n Lancing was by far the best four years of my life I always tell people yes it was a great education in the room but off the ice and life itself that's exactly where I I grew up as a as a young person so coming from Toronto playing co
llege hockey there still talking to a lot of my friends there uh amazing memories you were there for Tom Moo's first year right were you a big basketball fan at all during your time in college I was a huge sports fan like when I went to State it was Revenue Sports versus non-revenue Sports and not versus in terms of competition just that what people chose to attend and I love supporting all of our Sports whether I've Got Friends women's gymnastics soccer baseball wrestling and then we had the bi
g three hockey basketball and football so Jud Heath Co was the first coach that I when I was there and then Coach ISO took over afterwards but I in the stands with my pom poms fired up supporting the green and white every chance I got an opportunity the fact that you brought those pom poms is just so awesome I'm so excited about I've got a Spartan head but I I couldn't find it so I had just get pom poms instead yeah perfect we'll take it how about favorite March Madness moments in your lifetime
I mean they won it in 2000 after you graduated but what's your favorite moment I would say watching them win it and I left school by that point but watching the Flint Stones do their thing uh becoming friends with Mo Pete when he played for the Toronto rappers Raptors Morris Peterson um but I think for myself growing up growing up in Canada I love watching college hoop so UNLV watching the lastic man Stacy Ogman do his thing was amazing watching those battles with Duke and University of Michigan
I came close to going to that other school in Michigan because I love watch that fab five battle like the baggy shorts the black socks I mean I was all about that when I played High School Hoops in Toronto so uh those are the memories I remember the most and then Duke everyone hated Duke they were so good they look like the perfect school and they never seem to lose so they're the perfect team to cheer against we that's kind of a common theme we have a few people on the show that have been sayi
ng that right so this is kind of a a tough subject here but we're gonna get into it Stanley Cup known for being the hardest trophy to win in sports I agree and how do you think it Stacks up to the NCAA tournament as far as amazing postseasons Yeah by far it's the hardest I call it a war of attrition you're playing another two months you've got to win 16 games to lift that trophy it is by far but the same level of excitement I watch and I experience watching March Madness it's the same thing watc
hing the Stanley Cup Playoffs the thing about March Madness though is the best team doesn't necessarily win you got to be the best team on that night whereas when you watch the standard Cup playoffs you've got to win four games so you've got to be the best team over the two-e period and then on top of that there's some comparisons there too because you watch the LA Kings a number eight seed won a Stanley Cup Championship as recently as last year the Florida Panthers an eight seed again so anythi
ng is possible so that's where the correlation comes in when I watch March Madness versus Stanley Cup playoffs but it's just harder you've got seven games guys are leaning on you it's tough It's physical and I love every minute of it you agree with that stats oh yeah also I mean I gota say as a Flyers fan I know how hard it is to wait for a Stanley Cup to happen we're still waiting it's been a while trust me I I grew up in Toronto they haven't won since 67 before I was born and that's why I'm th
e ultimate bandwagon fan I don't have a team as long as you win a championship you're my team that year yeah go Rangers over here we're all waiting yeah all right Anon we're gonna take a look at your March Madness bracket this year I got a feeling who you picked to win the title but let's pull up the bracket and Anon if you could take us through some of your biggest upset picks uh go through your final four and your champ this year I know every single year we have upsets that's what makes March
Madness Madness but I've got a lot of the favorites getting through um where I see some of the stuff getting a little crazy is Western Kentucky I've got them beating Marquette because someone has to be upset wow right so I've got Western Kentucky you know beating Marquette and I also have Charleston beating Alabama I see that happening Alabama's a great football school basketball maybe not so much so that's where I have that but there's also a little method to my madness with that pick too becau
se my Spartans are also on that bracket so I'm trying to get an easy pathway for Coach ISO uh to make his way to the final four now Captain Obvious here I've got my Spartans in the final four Yukon they could possibly repeat I like yukon's chances but on the other side I'm looking at Florida and Gonzaga and I see Gonzaga playing against Michigan State in the final and then Coach ISO I have him coming out on top once again winning a national championship bringing it back home to East laning Michi
gan don't call me delusional do not call me delusional let's go well if this is a perfect bracket it's gonna be a good year for you stats what do you think of his picks here yeah I gotta say I love the idea of you're thinking ahead of like clearing the path for Michigan State I love that so yeah you're get you're getting rid of you know the teams helping uh you know gr can and Char Charleston helping you out there I love that you know kind of laying the path for you you know what this is this is
how you're supposed to have fun with it you know because here's the thing if Michigan state does win and you don't pick them you feel like you missed out so you you gotta be on you gotta be on the ride with them right exactly and then people will say you're not a true fan exactly 100% yeah and I wrote with a lot of my big 10 you know teams too as well I got Illinois going pretty deep I've got Purdue going pretty deep too so I'm showing a lot of a you know Allegiance there to the Big 10 as well
well we love it it Anon thank you so much for joining us Anon is an analyst for NHL on TNT which airs Wednesday and Sunday on tnvr and Max this Sunday Anon Sydney Crosby and the Penguins will visit Nathan McKinnon and the Colorado avalan so catch him there thanks so much you got it Go GRE he [Music] a a [Music] n [Music] he [Music] a sorry about that guys a little technical difficulty on my end but welcome back we are 20 minutes out you can see less than n 20 minutes 19 on the countdown ticker w
e've got another behind the scenes look and this time we're going to look at the control room for the production of this very show we have all of our show producers hard at work making this very stream possible just want to give a huge shout out to all of them this has been a great show and to think it was just an idea a few months ago and it's now come to life it's really been awesome so thanks to all of you in there making it happen yeah it's it's been real special uh yeah it's definitely just
been a dream come true and uh I can't believe it's almost over but that means the game's start so that is a positive that is a positive and we're going to get to our final bracket returns here soon so stats get ready for that and make sure you drop any questions you might have for stats and I in the comments but before that we've been talking about brackets for 4 days so how about some game action we thought we'd step away and show you about seven minutes of some of the most memorable March Mad
ness moments enjoy we'll be back shortly to count us down to noon he misses the rebound got to push this to the basket take it to the basket guys seconds no timeouts left what are they doing RJ Hunter for three that is one of the most incredible things that I've seen they were going nowhere I was wondering if they were going to get a shot and RJ Hunter I guess he came up big in the last 5 minutes here what a shot Ron Hunter tipped over his stool after his son made a to Georgia State the lead 4 s
econds to go in the first overtime and the badger lead by two Trice is playing the the safety position he just [Applause] closed chioza my goodness my goodness three-pointer is confirmed game over Mike White Greg guard W me each other at midcourt show Walter first chioza second with the same type of shot with exactly the same with the float to look at this clearly behind the line oh you can't make this stuff up Florida wins in overtime on an extraordinary shot by chioza 4141 21 ticks remaining P
rinceton with the basketball UCLA two time outs Princeton with one the next foul both teams will be in the bonus see McCoy has come out this time normally good Rich could come and get it you know that going to try to run a back door play if they can get it under 10 back door got it he got it got it threo get it they got he got a timeout time out oh got all back down UA 4341 UCLA down Cameron Dollar inbounding the basketball well that's what a timeout was called but they got to watch the log here
's Bailey he'll get it up oh meet him the Princeton tigers have pulled the upset they beat the defending national champions 43- 41 the line this season first free throws today missed it here they come one time out they don't take it he got it he got it buzzer and the Ramblers are moving on shot to tie it or win it with 12 seconds juang again with the ball in his hands in the paint floater short got it back ties it with three Gonzaga has time to do something Suggs for the win oh yes oh yes unbeli
evable unbelievable the perfect season remains on go are you oh my god serious there are onions Jim and then there are major onions with a kiss oh my goodness one of the great games they're going to have to Chas and Final Four history a classic game with a classic finish as we look at this replay a little kiss that'll be remembered smok that's the biggest kiss of your car oh my God WOW monk to tie it oh an impossible shot Pinson with five looks up driving in May for the win North Carolina with3
seconds to go an incredible shot wow maybe some major onion the with Arie Dio three seconds at J gives it to Jenkin for the [Applause] championship the national champions for Jin hitting the winner at the buzzer Jim they're going to check it I thought it was good live but how about those a counter double ERS sa if it's good well they're going to check the clock if there's any time and boy they've got a problem on their hands if they do because the streamers the confetti they would have to clear
out watch this and the recognition of arch finding Jenkins miscommunication by North Carolina how about that the officials on the far side have already walked away now after seeing it a national championship buzzer beater for the title power 11.3 seconds remain can the 15 seed upset the number two seed in the west I think it can happen lot of weapons on half of te Jefferson will inbound inside the big fella Williams Iowa State pushing time running down Tinsley off the Al it's over over right it'
s over by Drex Bo is he good at that they got a drive to the basket it's down to S seconds you can see the time whittenberg oh it's a long way they won it on the D welcome back in to the Quest for the perfect bracket show stats we are about 10 minutes away from the final bracket lock 12:15 games will start I am so excited we will be with you until the clock hits zero stats you want to take one last look at the bracket return see who our top 10 most picked Champs are yeah let's do it so uh yeah s
o once again here's the top 10 you can see here I'll I'll go ahead and highlight those 10 teams just so it's easier to see I you can see of course Yukon uh leads the way above 26% uh the 41 seeds not surprisingly are the big ones right now uh but you could see got some two seeds threes and how about Auburn getting in there uh above 3% so in case you're curious how this kind of rates uh we' mentioned historically but what about last year um so Houston was the most picked champ last year at 20% uh
which is pretty good you know maybe on the on the lower end of terms of the range we've seen but still pretty good like I mentioned before uh villan NOA and UNC in 2017 2018 uh won championships below that so so Houston's getting picked more popular than the two times they did match up so it's actually been better to not be the clear favorite uh in terms of Le in terms of percentages getting picked in the championship um so you can see here the the top two combined for about 37% which is about
the same as last year Alabama was second most picked team last year about 15% so you could see here there's more of a gap this year than we saw last year which to be expected when kind of the assumed favorite coming in is Yukon a team that won it last year no one overall seat has looked like a dominant force uh just like we saw and you know we mentioned for a while Kentucky was picked ahead of all the two seeds you see Arizona is the top two seed now they did jump Kentucky yesterday um last year
Gonzaga was the fourth most picked team win the championship and they were three seed so they were ahead of Bring It Back Again Purdue last year uh so gonzago at this three seed last year was picked on more than 9% of brackets number one Purdue last year was picked on 7.7 about percent of brackets so Purdue is about the same if not a little higher than last year so in the grand scheme of things you know we're talking about how people are more scared of Purdue than they were last year well it's
about the same actually um so maybe more people who jump off the bandwagon now are back on thinking well maybe maybe they can write the ship this year and kind of get things done which I think is is is a weak Ro story to talk about um so yeah so definitely like more more of a gap this year between the assumed favorite at least who the fans think is going to win 26% have Yukon win the championship and and everybody else um but you see nothing like too crazy you know there's no like Zion Duke team
undefeated Kentucky team like we had in Prior years but H Yukon in terms of where you know we pl them on terms of percentages is is definitely up there uh for the top pick so far um that we've seen and you know two ours of course Iowa State Tennessee Auburn and kraton are there as well um so some some names we saw last year are back you know you Houston of course Puro is there Arizona again was very popular last year but we know what that happened they got upset by Princeton so again just you c
an be a very very popular pick and be gone two of the top eight most popular picks last year were out in the first round we'll see if any of these 10 are in a similar boat this year uh in a few hours or or come tomorrow all right sath so we have some questions coming in so for those of you watching please drop some questions in the comments either on YouTube or on Bleacher Report we'll get to them and then we'll also before we wrap up share our final fours again and and let you know who we have
winning March Madness in our brackets uh I have a question for Wayne actually what's one game you cannot miss today or moving forward oh that's a really tough one okay so i' say for today uh I'm really excited uh for Drake Washington State uh I'm guilty of this I'm like all in on Drake I think a lot of people are too I think they can make the sweet 16 but uh that's that's nothing against Washington State I think they're capable of pull off an upset too if they can get by Drake that game is gonna
be fun um you know bringing back a CJ Sharie talk about MCN against zaga I think that's going to be a big one you can't miss uh I think especially with you mentioned mcculler injury that kind of seems to make things more wide open uh so maybe MCN can go on a run or Gonzaga could be a surprised final four Contender from the five seed right now 1.37% of our brackets have Gaga in the F win the championship which is the best of the five seeds so look out for that um I think that's a fun one you kno
w I I kind I'm kind of with what CJ said I think we're see some some Shockers today may maybe not like Wagner over UNC big um but you know we saw early you know the first day last year we saw Ferman take down Virginia and which kind of set the tone that this was going to be a wacky tournament especially uh the first few rounds um and so this is a big day you know Thursday these are two of the best days I think in on the sports calendar of the year um we have two very popular 11 seeds going today
NC State and Oregon play today so I'm curious to see if that kind of get things rolling with these upset picks start buzzing some brackets um and you know I'm very curious to see how cter state does you know it's been a habit that these first four teams that that win uh and Dayton find a way to to win another game if not go farther than that when you saw with making the final four from from first four and VCU in 2011 went from first four to final four so you never know I mean it doesn't matter
where you start from uh fdu had their first game in Dayton last year and then upset Purdue a few days later so anything's possible all right I got a question and a hot take from DJ peaches Allin one it says who will win the East when Yukon loses in the first round so oh a hot take and a question but let's make it a question if Yukon were to lose who do you think would win in the East man that's a really tough one the question is also who who beats Yukon too because I think if if because look loo
k at last year if you said okay Purdue not winning the the region who do you have and why you could have them losing to a two or three seed in the lead eight but when you lose in the first round to a 16 seat that blows everything wide open seeing with UNBC taking out Virginia I'm I I'm not saying ston is going to be going to beat yuk but it all depends on you know when these when these upsets happen you know far Atlantic uh is a dangerous one um I think in terms of like the team that maybe match
es up the best or could pull it off uh you know Iowa State people thought could been a one seed so naturally they're good two seed um but you know I tell you what it's it's kind of funny that you know we saw the final four last year uh there's there's a very there's a good chance that we could Yukon could F could place FAU in the second round uh if use the at or they could face San Diego State in a rematch of the title game as a five seed um we know uh Mountain West uh kind of had a a rough go o
f it in the tournament until s State last year so the azcs will will be on that again this year with Mexico and other Mountain West schools making a run um and you know right now if I had to pick one though I probably would say Iowa State you know just naturally you kind of think that could be the elite eight match up but you know if Yukon goes out earlier you know you never know Auburn could get hot if they have been um so yeah it's it's kind of hard if you have to kind of convince yourself of
what the answer is to get there um but I feel that that's March you know you P these brackets and try to say what you have is right and then you immediately second guess it the second you hit submit or save all right really quick stats because we only have three minutes and 40 seconds left till brackets lock do you think that Marquette is overrated from Caleb oh okay so I think the question is uh how do you find overrated uh I'd say by the Numbers we're seeing I'd say marquette's being underrate
d because they're the least picked one or two seed to basically do everything um whether it's you know win the championship you know make the final four whatever um so I guess terms of the seed line how they're getting picked I'd say they're underrated um but I do agree in terms of the regional if this makes any sense I do understand why you know they could kind of be seen as overrated in terms of the other teams in the region um you know whether it's obviously Houston's the one seed but Kentuck
y uh I think people are maybe expecting that to be the team the lead a instead of Marquette um you know Wisconsin you know we've talked all week about James Madison being one of those 30 win teams that could go on a maybe Cinderella run and uh we can't forget about Bucky Badger Wisconsin we kind of we kind of forgot about them in February during that that losing streak but they sure looked good in the Big 10 tournament for a while so they could be one as well so I think it depends on how you def
ine uh you know in terms of your overrate underrated with with Marquette maybe maybe underrated in terms of the data we're seeing considering their a two seed but maybe people think they're over in terms of the actual seating considering KY is a three in the region you Duke of course is very popular as well so might depend on you know how you want to how you want to go by the definition there but um you know you say all this they'll make the final four you never know and speaking of final four v
ery last question I have one that says which upset picks could make the final four so if you could pull up that that data stats really quick I believe MCN is the highest upset pick to make the final four there at of 12 seed yeah yeah they're the top double digit seed make the final four um of course there's other some you know St Mary's making as a five would be kind of not you know unusual because you know five seeds don't make it too much um with some four seeds basically you know it's also ho
w you define what's like a failure in terms of your seed for the tournament you know there there's no problem if you're one or two seed losing late eight you know that's that's fine and there's no there's no shame really losing whenever in this tournament because crazy things do happen um yeah so so mcnees is kind of the the double digit seed so they're in the final four over 3% of brackets which again and the grand scheme of things next to Yukon that seems very small Yukon is in the final four
on almost 58% but when you think of their 12 seed that's very very high and you know that's been the data all week it's gone down a little bit uh in terms of the percentages but it's still on the the three range um which is very very high for a 12 seed um especially consider there there's no there no lock to win no one's locked to win as we've seen the last few years no matter what what round we're in all right one minute left we're at 59 seconds uh for those that were asking and didn't see my b
racket yesterday uh I have you North Carolina Kentucky and Tennessee in my final four with Yukon and Kentucky playing in the championship game and Kentucky going all the way stats who do you have as we get down to 40 seconds here yes so you know I've been going back and forth but you know I do have Purdue winning the championship I think they'll beat Yukon uh and I'm going you know the other two I'm more shady about shaky about but I'll say uh Arizona and I'll have Kentucky uh the other two team
s in the final four there but not confident about anything not confident about absolutely everything but St that clock is ticking down I'm getting like anxious as it happens because I'm like there's no turning back now my piics are my P yeah my piics are in yeah yeah there's there's no there's no changing it now we're all we're all set I can't wait yeah this seconds now I feel like it's New Year's Eve one zero and brackets are locked stats it has been so much fun going through all this data you
have been so awesome taking us through all these numbers I know it takes a lot of time so we really appreciate it and it's going to be a really really fun tournament and all those games will be streamed on the March Madness Live app can't wait thanks thanks much Kell you've been great it's a lot of fun all right guys so that gonna that just brings us to the end here the Quest for the perfect bracket show has come to a close the clock has hit zero and brackets are locked no going back we have a g
reat few weeks in front of us with March Madness starting today thank you for following along everybody we've had so much fun we appreciate you watching for Wayne stats the whole crew I'm Mela Chester the Quest for the perfect bracket Starts Now he [Music] a [Music] a h
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