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2018 NCAA Tournament: Bruins Nation Bracket Challenge Elite Eight Update

Let’s check in and see who’s winning the BN Bracket Challenge as we head into this weekend’s Final Four.

NCAA Basketball: NCAA Tournament-Nashville Practice Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

With the second weekend of the 2018 NCAA Tournament in the books and Final Four weekend coming up, let’s check in to see who’s winning this year’s Bruins Nation Bracket Challenge.

As usually seems to be the case after the second weekend of play, there is a new leader at the top of the board.

Last week’s second place bracket has taken over the top spot. That’s good news for “Josh” and his “Different Steve - Same Result” bracket, but the bad news is that his tournament winner Duke bit the dust on Sunday by losing to Kansas, which means that Josh will max out at 91 points, making it highly unlikely he will win this year’s challenge. Sorry, Josh.

In second place with 72 points is “slanty ¬ ¬”, but, like Josh, his or her tournament winner is also out. In fact, this bracket had Virginia and, at this point, cannot earn any more points. As a result, it’s pretty unlikely to hold onto a spot in the Top 5.

There is a three-way tie for third place with 70 points. One of the third place brackets belongs to “Fly0nwa11” and “Fly0nwa11’s Ridiculous Bracket.” This is the bracket which has the most possible points remaining. That because this bracket has Michigan and Villanova advancing to the title game with Michigan winning it. This is the only bracket which has Michigan winning. So, if the Wolverines win the title, then “Fly0nwa11” will likely be our winner.

But, right alongside that bracket is the “Svedish Chef.” After the first weekend, the “Svedish Chef” had the most possible points remaining and “Svedish Chef’s Boss Bracket” still has the third-most possible points behind “Fly0nwa11” and one other bracket. The “Svedish Chef” has Villanova winning it all, meaning there’s a good likelihood that the “Svedish Chef” could win the bracket challenge.

The third bracket tied for third-place currently belongs to “Jordan” and the “Euler+Alford” bracket. “Jordan” has Villanova advancing to the national championship game, but Virginia as the winner. As a result, “Jordan” can only score 16 more points, which won’t be enough to win without a lot of help.

There is another bracket to look out for, even if it is currently in 42nd place. That would be the “Tank for not alford” bracket owned by “Jack.” While “Jack” only has 57 points right now, this bracket has Michigan and Villanova going to the title game with the Wildcats winning the title.

So, if both the Wolverines and Wildcats both win on Saturday, either “Jack” or “Fly0nwa11” should win. But, if Villanova wins and Michigan loses Saturday, then the “Svedish Chef” is the likely winner.

What if Kansas wins? Well, then we might end up with our first tie as there are two brackets which will score 110 points if Kansas wins Monday night. Currently, these two brackets are tied for 20th place, but because they both have Kansas winning the title, “29th” and “Chris” could still win this year’s challenge.

Since Yahoo does not seem to have clear rules on how they employ the tiebreaker, unless Yahoo suddenly comes up with some, I am adding some tiebreaker rules in advance of Monday’s title game. First, one point will be awarded for whichever player’s predicted score for Kansas is closest to the the Jayhawks actual score and one point will be awarded to the player who more accurately predicted the actual point spread. Second, if they are still tied, whichever player has correctly picked more games right over the course of the entire tournament. Should a tie still remain, we will then look at who has more correct games in each round until a winner is determined, starting with the first round.

Here are the full standings after the Elite Eight.

2018 Bruins Nation Bracket Challenge, Update #2

Rank Owner Bracket Round 1 Round 2 Sweet 16 Elite Eight National Semis Finals Points Possible Pts
Rank Owner Bracket Round 1 Round 2 Sweet 16 Elite Eight National Semis Finals Points Possible Pts
1 Josh Different Steve - Same Result 25 18 16 16 - Duke 75 91
2 slanty ¬ ¬ slanty ¬ ¬'s Nice Bracket 24 16 16 16 - Virginia 72 72
3 Fly0nwa11 Fly0nwa11's Ridiculous Bracket 24 18 12 16 - Michigan 70 134
3 Svedish Chef Svedish Chef's Boss Bracket 20 18 16 16 - Villanova 70 118
3 Jordan Euler+Alford 24 18 12 16 - Virginia 70 86
6 Stephen My Outstanding Bracket 25 16 12 16 - Villanova 69 117
7 bigIpsych TarHeelBruin 25 14 12 16 - Virginia 67 83
7 Douglas Douglas's Dandy Bracket 23 12 16 16 - Arizona 67 67
9 Larry Carmel Bruin's Bracket (CBB) 26 16 16 8 - Virginia 66 82
9 stirling b Darkadian 22 12 16 16 - Duke 66 66
11 Kiks Kiks's Out-of-Sight Bracket 25 16 16 8 - Villanova 65 113
11 Scott Cheeto 21 12 16 16 - Duke 65 65
13 Jeff Jeff's Bracket 20 16 12 16 - Villanova 64 112
13 Zach BruWins 26 18 12 8 - Villanova 64 112
13 Dan BigBruinfan 24 16 16 8 - Xavier 64 80
13 MaxPower BruinRogue 20 16 12 16 - Virginia 64 80
13 Jim Bumgardner ORCA Bruin 22 18 16 8 - Michigan St. 64 64
13 nicholas nicholas's Optimal Bracket 22 14 12 16 - Cincinnati 64 64
19 Lynn papadick 21 18 8 16 - Villanova 63 111
20 Chris Dancing With TIARA 22 20 12 8 - Villanova 62 110
20 29th 29th_Candidate's Bruin Bracket 22 12 12 16 - Kansas 62 110
20 Chris My Champion Bracket 22 16 8 16 - Kansas 62 110
20 SJBbruin Completely Random Bracket 22 20 12 8 - Virginia 62 78
24 Alec Alec's Bracket 21 12 12 16 - Villanova 61 109
24 Jon Steve 16 Expectations Managed 23 14 8 16 - Villanova 61 109
24 Eric seas 19 14 12 16 - Villanova 61 109
24 BOUNCE Gadabout 23 14 8 16 - Michigan St. 61 61
28 Doug Schneider Insomnia333's Crazy Bracket 20 16 16 8 - Virginia 60 76
28 DanG No Coaching Carousel 24 16 12 8 - N. Carolina 60 76
28 austinc Steve-noteven64 20 16 8 16 - Cincinnati 60 76
28 John This is going to get ugly 20 16 16 8 - Virginia 60 60
32 Doug Doug's Dandy Bracket 23 16 12 8 - Villanova 59 107
32 Joe P15 *The Ghost of John Wooden 21 14 8 16 - Villanova 59 107
32 Jolly Green Giant Bru Crew 23 16 12 8 - Virginia 59 75
32 The Kid Dynomite Badda-Bing-Badda-Boom Bracket 21 14 8 16 - Virginia 59 59
36 Gabriela I Gotta Steal Shades 22 20 8 8 - Villanova 58 106
36 Eric Eric's Excellent Bracket 24 10 8 16 - Cincinnati 58 74
36 PAULT PAULT's Phenomenal Bracket 22 16 12 8 - Arizona 58 74
36 James James's Quality Bracket 20 14 16 8 - Virginia 58 74
36 Randall Randall's Peerless Bracket 22 16 12 8 - Duke 58 58
36 Loser Bracket 24 14 12 8 - Michigan St. 58 58
42 Jack Tank for not alford 19 10 12 16 - Villanova 57 121
42 Steven Steven's Splendid Bracket 19 14 8 16 - Virginia 57 73
42 Ira I hook 23 14 12 8 - Michigan St. 57 57
42 Atle Atle's track bracket 21 16 12 8 - Virginia 57 57
46 OCgirl cheaters never win (coughAZ) 24 16 8 8 - Villanova 56 104
46 Matt W Matt W's Bold Bracket 22 14 12 8 - N. Carolina 56 72
46 Ron Ron's Reasonable Bracket 24 12 12 8 - Duke 56 56
46 Wright Brad's Best Bracket 24 16 8 8 - Michigan St. 56 56
46 Brian Big Chew Ali 24 16 8 8 - Virginia 56 56
51 Red Moon 10 inches of Tiki 19 16 12 8 - Virginia 55 71
51 David David's Dazzling Bracket 21 10 8 16 - Arizona 55 71
53 gbruin Batista with The CATCH!!! 18 16 12 8 - Villanova 54 102
53 Oscar Alford's Calley Defense 22 16 8 8 - Villanova 54 102
53 Derek West Coast Bias 20 14 12 8 - Villanova 54 102
53 Phillip C Phillip C's Choice Bracket 22 16 8 8 - Villanova 54 102
53 Troy Troy's Sensational Bracket 18 12 8 16 - Arizona 54 70
53 Filmicisland FUSCUCLA1 22 16 8 8 - Michigan St. 54 54
59 Nate Natekaelin6 21 12 12 8 - Villanova 53 101
59 Waiting for #115 19 14 12 8 - Virginia 53 69
61 Terry Shepley's picks 20 12 12 8 - Villanova 52 100
61 Avi Avi's Nice Bracket 22 14 8 8 - Virginia 52 52
63 Cara Alford Lost His Balls 22 12 8 8 - Villanova 50 98
63 Uclaluv Beyond Apathy 22 12 8 8 - Virginia 50 50
65 Lindsay LSJUCLA 21 12 8 8 - Villanova 49 97
65 casey o Casey 2 21 12 8 8 - Villanova 49 97
67 Anony KSBruin's picks 22 14 4 8 - Kansas 48 96
67 Laker Laker's Legit Bracket 20 12 8 8 - Villanova 48 96
67 DuaneT troney’s 22 10 8 8 - Arizona 48 48
70 Armen $c_Sucks! 17 14 8 8 - Villanova 47 95
70 David uclads_2000 19 12 8 8 - Michigan St. 47 47
72 Samuel burculian 19 10 8 8 - Villanova 45 93
72 Steven Steven's Swag Bracket 19 10 8 8 - Villanova 45 93
72 J NextYear#12 23 14 8 - - Xavier 45 45
75 James Ponce HoosierDaddy 21 8 4 8 - Villanova 41 89
76 Eric Bring back Watson! 19 8 4 8 - Villanova 39 87
77 Vincent Aaron Holiday is my Homeboy 19 14 4 - - Duke 37 37
78 Jerry Sweet 16 is an Accomplishment 18 12 - - - Virginia 30 30
79 Bennett Stache Bracket 20 8 - - - Virginia 28 28


Go Bruins!!!