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Home ›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.