Saturday, March 30, 2019

March Madness: The Last Perfect Bracket Busted

According to Chicago’s ABC 7, the last perfect bracket among NCAA Tournament fans was busted Thursday.

Gregg Nigl, a 40-year-old neuropsychologist from Ohio, created the bracket on NCAA.com. 

My brackets were nuked early on, but I had Duke advancing through the Sweet 16 and the Elite 8 and, of course, to the National Championship.

Nigl didn't even realize his bracket was still intact on Tuesday, having correctly predicted the outcome of all 48 games that had been played so far.  Nigl even changed his Twitter handle to Gregg “Perfect Bracket” Nigl.  Mr. Perfect is no more after Purdue’s overtime win over the Vols.
Purdue had a commanding lead throughout most of the game and was leading by 18 in the second half before the Vols went on a 32-14 run to tie the game at 65 with six minutes left to play.

The pivotal moment in the game came with 10 seconds left.  With the Vols up 82-80, Purdue moved the ball into the corner passing to Carsen Edwards.  Had he not missed the three-pointer the game would have been over.

Tennessee’s Lamonte Turner allegedly fouled Edwards.  The call was controversial.  Edwards’ heels were on the line when he attempted that shot.  The refs declared Turner had contact with Edwards’ hip.
The foul sent Edwards to the charity stripe allowing Purdue to tie the game and send the game into overtime with the final score of 99-94.

Saturday’s games:

No. 3 Texas Tech vs. No. 1 Gonzaga 6:09 PM, TBS
No. 3 Purdue vs. No. 1 Virginia 8:49 PM, TBS

Sunday’s games:

No. 1 Duke vs. No. 2 Michigan State 5:05 PM, CBS
No. 5 Auburn vs. No. 2 Kentucky 2:20 PM, CBS

Spartans Head coach Tom Izzo hopes his team has the same success against Duke as they did against LSU, but that will only happen if they can come up with a robust defense to control Zion “Thunder Dunk” Williamson and R. J. “Maple Mamba” Barrett.

Williamson was incredible against the Hokies, this time finishing with 23 points on 11-of-14 shooting. The biggest story might have been the hot shooting of teammate Tre Jones, who hit five three-pointers after never making more than two in one game all season. R.J. Barrett was also phenomenal, adding 18 points and 11 assists in the win. Duke will continue to be a favorite throughout this tournament because Williamson is by far the best player in the country. 


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