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With the powers that be officially cancelling Christmas and the NCAA Tournament, we’re taking matters into our own hands. This will not stand, you know, this aggression will not stand, man!
So we’re running our own damn tournament. Using the final bracketology put together by ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, we’ve released a 2020 NCAA Tournament bracket. Winners of each game are voted on by you, the people. The results will be posted along a similar timeline to what would have been the original tournament. The schedule is as follows:
Sunday March 15: First Four
Monday March 16: Midwest Region
Tuesday March 17: East Region
Wednesday March 18: West Region
Thursday March 19: South Region
Friday March 20: Recap special
Monday March 23: Round of 32 for Midwest and East
Tuesday March 24: Round of 32 for West and South
Wednesday March 25: Sweet 16 for Midwest and East
Thursday March 26: Sweet 16 for Midwest and East
Friday March 27: Recap Special
Monday March 30: Elite 8
Tuesday March 31: Final Four
Wednesday April 1: The Finals
Thursday April 2: Champion is crowned/One Shining Social Media Moment
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, ya’ll! While you’re all likely stuck in your humble abodes rather than out celebrating, hopefully you’re able to enjoy some semblance of normalcy on this most unusual of holidays. To add to the oddity that is working from home with stores and restaurants all closed, we’re here with your now daily replacement NCAA Tournament.
It was a chalk day in the tournament yesterday as we had a grand total of zero upsets in the Midweste region. Here’s a rundown of the day’s results:
- #1 Kansas defeated #16 Siena with 432-89
- #5 Auburn took down #12 Liberty 319-152
- #4 Wisconsin defeated #13 North Texas 382-35
- #6 Iowa blew out #11 East Tennessee State 823-35
- #3 Duke beat #14 Belmont 358-115
- #10 Arizona State upset #7 Providence 286-176
- #2 Kentucky beat #15 North Dakota State 389-104
Now, it was brought to our attention in the comments of yesterday’s post that the 8/9 matchup between Houston and Marquette was omitted. Such is life in a made up tournament with no real sports.
With no voting to drive the outcome of this hypothetical matchup, we’re turning to the best set of advanced analytics and algorithms to determine a winner. No, we’re not talking about KenPom or Sagarin. Of course, we’re talking about Evan Miyakawa, renowned Doctorate in Statistics candidate at Baylor University and 2017 graduate of Taylor University. Dr. (some day) Miyakawa used his cutting edge algorithm to simulate the tournament as well, and I think we can all agree this is probably the most accurate advanced analytic metric to-date.
Using my college basketball ratings algorithm, I simulated the tournament once, using Joe Lunardi's latest bracket. I promise this was completely a random simulation. For the record, in my algorithm, Baylor is ranked #5, Iowa #20. pic.twitter.com/10nSGGhwpP
— Evan Miyakawa (@evanmiya) March 15, 2020
So, Marquette over Houston. Done and done.
On to the East Region:
Poll
#1 Dayton vs. #16 Robert Morris
This poll is closed
-
87%
#1 Dayton
(116 votes) -
12%
#16 Robert Morris
(16 votes)
Poll
#8 Colorado vs. #9 Florida
Poll
#5 Butler vs. #12 Richmond
Poll
#4 Maryland vs. #13 Akron
Poll
#6 Penn State vs. #11 NC State
This poll is closed
-
72%
#6 Penn State
(96 votes) -
27%
#11 NC State
(37 votes)
Poll
#3 Villanova vs. #14 Hofstra
Poll
#7 West Virginia vs. #10 Utah State
This poll is closed
-
37%
#7 West Virginia
(50 votes) -
62%
#10 Utah State
(82 votes)
Poll
#2 Florida State vs. #15 Northern Kentucky
This poll is closed
-
96%
#2 Florida State
(127 votes) -
3%
#15 Northern Kentucky
(5 votes)