UMBC busts lots of NCAA brackets

    College basketballs fans who filled out their brackets for this year’s NCAA mens Division I never expected what happened  Friday night in the South region.
    The University of Maryland-Baltimore County stunned the sports world by pulling off the most shocking upset in college basketball history, hammering Virginia 74-54 on Friday night to become the first No. 16 seed ever to beat a No. 1 seed in the men’s NCAA Tournament.
    UMBC secured its underdog legacy in sports lore, alongside Buster Douglas, the 1980 United States Olympic hockey team, Appalachian State football and Joe Namath’s Jets.
    Virginia entered the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed after going 31-2 in the regular season, including 20-1 in ACC competition.
    The question wasn’t whether they would win this game, but if they would get to the Final Four and win it all.
    Up until Friday, No. 1 seeds stood at 135-0 in NCAA tournament history.
    March Madness reigned in the South region with none of the top-four seeds advancing, the first time in tournament history that has happened in a region.
    That made the South a real bracket buster with No. 11 seed Loyola-Chicago and their 98-year-old praying, cheerleading nun making the Sweet 16.
    In the West, top-seeded Xavier went down along with the No.2 seed, North Carolina.
    There weren’t any real surprises in the East and the ACC will dominate the Midwest in Omaha this week with three of the four teams—Duke, Clemson and Syracuse.
    Kansas, the top seed in the region, won their first two games to advance and will face Clemson.
Bracketology standings
    In this year’s Imperial Republican bracketology contest, Nick Banceles of Wauneta holds the lead, having picked 35 of the 64 games correctly.  
    Brian Carman of Imperial picked 33 games while Tracy Pribbeno, Nate Vitosh, Jenna Schultz, Penny Strand, all of Imperial, and Matt Klima of Wauneta picked 32 games correctly.
    Of the 34 contestants, only two go into the Sweet 16 with 10 teams remaining—Banceles and Pribbeno.
    Six others have nine teams going into this weekend.
    The South region was a killer on the brackets for nearly all of the contestants.

To view more please log in or subscribe to the digital edition. https://etypeservices.com/Imperial%20RepublicanID359/