The Standard’s 2024 Bracket Challenge contest begins to sort itself out as the NCAA Tournament enters its final week

The 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship Tournament is down to its final four teams, and half of them seem to have come as a surprise to this year’s entries in The Standard’s Bracket Challenge contest. None of this year’s entries has all four of those remaining teams listed among its winners at this point in the tournament, and just one entry has three of those four teams selected while 40 entries have two of the final four teams.

As one might expect, the two top-seeded teams that remain in this season’s final four squads were among the most popular picks to advance as one of the tournament’s final four teams, as 95 entries chose the University of Connecticut (UConn) to advance that far and 52 entries selected Purdue. Just 10 entries selected fourth-seeded Alabama to be among the tournament’s final four teams, with just one entry picking 11th-seeded North Carolina (NC) State, which becomes just the fifth 11th-seeded team to make those final four squads - the lowest seed to ever advance that far in the tournament.

Of those four final teams, 40 entries have UConn selected to win this year’s National Championship and 15 of them have Purdue chosen to win it all. Only one entry has Alabama selected to win this season’s national title, and not a single one of this year’s entries has NC State chosen as this year’s National Champion.

The top 15 entries for The Standard’s Bracket Challenge heading into this last weekend of the tournament are listed below:
Herbie Krambeer    87
Darwin Johnson    85
Jon Herman    81
Bentley Willis    80
Verland Lenth    79
Jaxon Brinkman    79
Ken Krambeer    78
Landon Johnson    77
Kreigan Phipps    77
Mason McMillan    77
Gail Prestemon    76
Jamie McCarthy    76
Linda Mahr    76
Jarod Dahlstrom    75
Bryan Mueller    75

There is still plenty to be determined by the results of those final four teams through this next weekend. In fact, the possible contest winner many not even be listed in those top-15 entries. Pick up next week’s copy of The Standard to see who wins this season’s Bracket Challenge.