Annabelle Dibert emerges to early lead in The Standard’s 2018 Basketball Bracket Challenge

The 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament has gotten off to an historic start, with some head-scratching and eye-popping results that have left the tournament about as “up for grabs” as it ever has been. Likewise, the 180 entries in The Standard’s 2018 Basketball Bracket Challenge are likely feeling that same upheaval after a pair of both number-one (Virginia and Xavier) and number-two (Cincinnati and defending tournament championship North Carolina) seeds in the tournament have already been eliminated after just the first two rounds.

The elimination of just those four high-end seeded teams in the tournament’s first weekend of competition took with it the championship picks of nearly one-third of this year’s Bracket Challenge entries. As one might expect, Virginia - this year’s overall top seed for the tournament that suffered the historic fate of being the first number-one seed to lose to a number-16 seed in the entire three-plus decades of the tournament, took the championship dreams of 33 of this year’s entries right down with it when the Cavaliers lost in the opening round of the tournament to rarely-heard-of but now forever-in-the-NCAA-history-books University of Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC).

Those 33 Virginia champion entries were tied for the most in this year’s Bracket Challenge with the 33 entries who chose Villanova to win this season’s NCAA Tournament title, with Villanova still being alive in the tournament.

Along with top-seeded Virginia, the other 25 entries who had their championship hopes somewhat shockingly dashed early with the elimination of the other number-one or number-two seeds included 12 who chose top-seeded Xavier, 11 who chose number-two seed North Carolina to repeat as NCAA National Champions, and just two who chose number-two seeded Cincinnati.

In addition to Villanova being the top remaining choice for this year’s entries, 25 entries chose number-one seed Kansas to win this season’s tournament and 14 picked two-seeded Duke, rounding out the teams to be selected by a double-digit number of entries. Also among the teams still remaining in the tournament who have been chosen by this year’s entries are Michigan (7), Purdue (5), Gonzaga (4), Kentucky (3) and Texas Tech and West Virginia, each with one entry having chosen them to win it all.

So far, through the first weekend and opening two rounds of the tournament, The Standard’s Bracket Challenge has produced these top 58 entries listed below. Their scores rank from number one all the way through being tied for 45th place currently.

Annabelle Dibert    48
Joshua Davis    44
Heather Delaney    44
Charlie Jepsen    44
Rylee Brinkman    44
Dan Denk    43
Gina Curtin    43
Kaedyn Heitland    43
Janessa Weymiller    43
John Reinke    43
Emmett Larkin    43
Andrew Davis    43
Claire Opperman    43
Jim Winters    43
Marlene Houg    43
Ellen Lenth    43
Tami Stilwell    43
Kent Schultz    42
Morgan Stegen    42
Kole McCormick    42
Julie Bloxham    42
Grace Bucher    42
Karen Mathis    42
Pat Stilwell    42
Reggie Schwartzhoff    41
Wayne Hirth    41
Mitchell Davis    41
Darwin Johnson    40
Janel Benda    40
Hailey Houg    40
Jacob Jones    40
Nicole Willis    40
Logan Delaney    40
Micah Reinke    40
Dylan Bieber    40
Bridget Adam    40
Joe Tayek    40
Lana Grady    40
Colin Jones    40
Linda Jennings    40
Katie Gress    40
Neal Daley    40
Jaxon Brinkman    40
Morgan Weymiller    40
Jim Baxter    39
Paul Norton    39
Chance Adam    39
Beckham Delaney    39
Jan Pfiffner    39
James Ranum    39
Jonah Reinke    39
Karli Mathis    39
Willow Kelly    39
Amy McCormick    39
Diane Piittmann    39
Tom Hustvet    39
Amy Opperman    39
Emily Hammel    39

But, as has been proven, by both the tournament and the weekly standings, nothing is ever guaranteed and things can change in a hurry. In fact, just looking at the first five entries on this initial list, none of them have all four of the “final four” teams that they picked in this year’s Bracket Challenge remaining. Actually, a majority of those top five only have half of their “final four” teams left in the tournament.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are entries that did not even make this initial list who still do have all four of their “final four” teams remaining in the tournament. Keep watching each week’s Standard to see how it all plays out.