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The tournament this year didn't have too many big upsets, but tonight we had two #1-seeds go down on one night. I had a gut feel that was going to happen but couldn't follow my hunch with a big bet since I don't have a betting app. Jokes aside, I did mention earlier that the last time before this year that all #1-seeds made the Final Four was 2008, and I just realized tonight that the 2008 Final Four was also in San Antonio just like tonight.

Duke is not a fan of San Antonio. They were a #1-seed in 2004 when they were beat by UConn in San Antionio. I still have no idea how Duke lost that game tonight. Congratulations to Houston. What amazing fight down the stretch with an 11-1 run in the last 90 seconds.



It was good to see Jim Nance in the crowd tonight. I didn't realize he was an alum of Houston. Saturday night of the Final Four is one of the hardest tickets to get in all of sports. I wonder if Jim got his tickets from Houston or CBS. His last time announcing the Final Four was 2023. I did miss his voice tonight but cannot wait to hear it at the Masters next weekend. That guy has the greatest job in the world.



Rayce Kopach takes over the top spot on the big Leaderboard with Houston as his Champ and takes home the $250 prize as the Round 5 leader. His dad Mike won the pool in 2014. Rayce and Mike could be the first father and son combo to both be Champs in this pool. David Templer is in second with Florida as his Champ. Two previous Champs, Jeff Lundal and Marianne Prosser, are also in the top 5 right now.

Sadly, UCLA Women got crushed by UConn in the Semi-final on Friday night. But, it should still be a great final on Sunday with defending Champ South Carolina against Paige Bueckers and UConn Huskies. Evan Wheststone (South Carolina Alumni) is first place on the Womens Leaderboard with the Gamecocks as his Champ. Los Williams close behind in second place with UConn as Champ.

In the SWEET-16, we still have 3 people with perfect brackets. In the top 6, a combo of Houston and Florida as their champs, so still several people who could still take home a prize.

All have paid expect two weasels. They are both good friends, so I haven't sent them any reminders. Its more fun to call them a weasel. For those of you who won prizes, I plan to start paying out tomorrow. Thanks.

The Final Four is set, and it is made up of all the #1-seeds. This entire tournament has not had many big upsets and no real Cinderella, but the Final Four should be some awesome games. The last time all #1-seeds made the Final Four was 2008, when UCLA made their 3rd straight Final Four. I wonder if statistically all the #1-seeds are bound to all make it to the Final Four every 15 to 20 years. Or, has the transfer portal and NIL reduced parity. I have to admit that I am a hypocrite. I vocally yell that I hate the transfer portal and NIL, but I celebrated this week when the #2 on the the ESPN Transfer Portal Rankings just committed to UCLA. I now love Donovon Dent, who I never heard of before last week.

In this pool, over 73% of the brackets still have their Champ alive. Are you one of the ones who has hope that you can still win? Not need to run all the scenarios. The FINAL FOUR COMBINATIONS page will show you the final 8 scenarios.

In the BIG LEADERBOARD, Jake Wertz stays on top even though he has Texas Tech as his Champ. The good news is that he takes home the $250 prize for being the Round-4 Leader. The bad news is that he is going to quickly fall out of the top 10. But, don't feel too bad for Jake. He won the $250 prize for Round-2, Round-3, & Round-4.

In the SWEET-16 LEADERBOARD, we still have 33 people with perfect brackets. When all the #1-seeds make it, there isn't much to separate the pack.

In the Women's Bracket, half of the Final Four is set. The mighty UCLA Women are in and I am thrilled!! I watch enough Women's basketball to know that LSU's coach Kim Mulkey is basically Lord Voldemort. So happy to see good triumph. In the WOMEN'S LEADERBOARD, Justin Coar stays at the top.

There is a $250 prize for the best combined 3&4. With no real upsets, we have 11 people tied. Check out the FINAL RESULTS page to see the names.

Below are the $250 prize winners for the Best Regional Brackets:

SOUTH: The Pope
WEST: Toby Hensley
MIDWEST: Quinn Sheehan
EAST: 12 winners (see FINAL RESULTS to see names).

As most of you know, a portion of the entry fees are donated to Charity. This weekend, I sent $1000 to the Jimmy V Foundation on all of our behalf. Thanks to everyone.

#1-Florida survives, barely. They were down 10 points late but had an unbelievable rally to move on to the Final Four. Its not going to be a all SEC Final Four. The ACC advances #1-Duke to the Final Four. Florida and Duke were the two most popular teams picked to win it all in this pool. That means almost 55% of brackets still have their Champ alive and well. We could still get all four #1-seeds to the Final Four. The last time that happened was 2008.



Jake Wertz still on the top spot of the BIG LEADERBOARD, but the cracks are starting to appear. He has Texas Tech as his Champ and they got knocked out by Florida last night. David Templer has Duke as his Champ and is now tied with Jake at the top. The 2022 Pool Winner, Marianne Prosser, along with Austin Russell are in third and both have Duke as their Champ.

In the SWEET-16, we still have 60 people with perfect brackets. Not a lot of upsets to separate the pack.

With the Elite-8 now determined in the Women's bracket, Justin Coar and Kevin Parsons are in the top spot on the WOMEN'S Leaderboard. The prize gets paid down the the third spot which has Jacob Chobanian and Jeff Benowitz tied.

Toby Hensley has the best WEST bracket and takes home the $250 prize. The best EAST bracket is also a final, but has 12 people with perfect EAST brackets. They will basically each be getting back their entry fee after splitting the $250 prize 12 ways. One a prize goes final, the prize winners can be seen on the FINAL RESULTS page.

Elite Eight is set. It all four #1-seeds plus three of #2s and a #3. The cream floats to the top. SEC has 4 teams into the Elite-8.

In the Big Leaderboard, Jake Wertz stays at the top and takes home the $250 prize for being the R3 Leader.

In the Sweet-16 Leaderboard, 71 entries still have a perfect bracket.

In the Women's Leadboard, Jacob Chobanian take the top spot with Southern Cal as his Champ, but sadly, JuJu is out for the season with a injured ACL. The mighty Bruin Jeff Benowitz is tied at the top with the mighty Bruins as his Champ, and the Bruins are already into the Elite-8. A special shout out to a guy named Scott Williams who in in 11th.

Don't forget that you can still win an award for the best REGION. That is always the prize that people are most surprised when I tell them they won money.

Both #1-seeds move on, including Duke (Darn!). #10-Arkansas looked really good early and then blew a big 16-pt lead to #3-Texas tech. What a comeback!

Before gambling was legal, I used to go to Las Vegas every year for the tournament so we could bet on the games. Sitting in the sport’s book was great. It was so fun to see people screaming at the end of every game. They were not yelling for their Alma mater. They were yelling to see who covered the spread or for the over/under. I don't have any of the gambling apps and am not really a gambler (excluding NCAA Brackets & Fantasy Football). But, I do find it fun to know the spread & over/under as I watch the games. And tonight, I wish I would have bet the over on that Alabama game because they won 113-88 crushing the 175.5 over.

When Alabama hit 100 points with 6:30 left in the game, I wondered if that was close to a record. Answer is no. Not even close. Do you remember the highest? It was Loyola Marymount in 1990. LMU was a #11-seed and beat #3-Michigan 149-115. See the 1990 Bracket to view the history. I lived in Los Angeles those years and actually think of LMU as a basketball school. Surprising to me, they have only made the tourney 3 times total: 1988, 1989, 1990 (LMU History page.) If you don't remember the story, go watch the ESPN 30 for 30 called Guru of Go. I don't want to ruin it for you, but when Bo Kimble shot the left handed free throw in the first game of NCAA tourney, it was one of the most emotional moments in sports I have ever watched live on TV.



Jake Wertz stays atop of the big Leaderboard.

In the SWEET-16 Pool, 79% of the entries entered a SWEET-16 bracket. That is just a little less than previous years. I reminded my wife all week to enter her Sweet-16 bracket, but she still missed. I am fine with it; easier for me to win the prize. Winner gets $700. There are 161 brackets (~29%) still perfect on the SWEET-16 Leaderboard.

Thanks to everyone who has paid. Venmo is again the most popular option by a wide margin. I got only two physical checks this year. One from my Mom and one of Dad, both mailed separately from the same address every year. Clean accounting when tracking their gambling debts. I love that. Only 13 people are unpaid: WEASELS. If you know them, text them today and call them a weasel.



MLB regular season started today. I am watching the Chicago Cubs @ Arizona as I write this news. Cubs up 8-5 in bottom of 8th. How is it MLB opening day and the Cubs are already 0-2 in the standings. Must be something to do with Japan and the metric system. Chicago White Sox win and are 1-0. They have already matched their win total from last year. Go Cubs Go!

The Sweet-16 is set. All the number one seeds are still alive as well as three of the #2-seeds. #10-Arkansas is the only double digit seed into the Sweet-16. The SEC lost some of their lower seeds early, but the top seeds looked good in the second round. The SEC has 7 teams moving forward, representing 44% of the Sweet-16. The BIG10 and BIG12 each have 4 teams on to the Sweet-16.

Jake Wertz maintains his hold on the top spot on the Big Leaderboard with Texas Tech as his Champion. With the top spot at the end of Round 2 (a.k.a. the TJ Marriott Rule), Jake takes home the $250 prize. Mike Balousek moves up one spot to second place. Mike also had the best overall weekend (just the R2 games), so he will take home the $250 Prize for the best Round 2. Mike correctly picked 15 correct teams into the SWEET-16.

Check out the MOST SWEET-16 TEAMS page to see who else correctly picked most teams in their bracket. This is a good indicator of who still has a chance to make big moves up the leaderboard.

In the Women's Bracket, Evan Whetstone stays at the top with his Alma Mater, South Carolina, as his Champ. He has only missed two total games so far in the Women's bracket.

Don't forget to submit your Sweet-16 bracket. I created the Sweet-16 for people who needed a second chance after their brackets went bust. Every original bracket entered gets a free chance in the SWEET-16 pool at no extra charge. Log in to your home page to make your picks. Your new Sweet-16 picks do not affect your original bracket in any way. If you have questions, see the SWEET 16 INFO.

I only entered one bracket this year. Now that my bracket is busted, I wish I had another one. I have no issue with people who like to enter multiple brackets. Many like to diversify since they hate to have their single bracket goes bust. The majority of people do enter only once:

1 bracket	64%
2 brackets	19%
3 brackets	9%
4 brackets	8%

Speaking of my busted bracket, I was wondering today if I could still win if I got the rest of my picks correct. I decided I should spend Sunday coding the site to allow me to see that specific leaderboard scenario. I must be like a squirrel who forgot where he buried his nuts. I completely forgot I had built that last year. I do remember adding the Max Points to the leaderboard. But, I forgot you could hit that Max link to see that max scenario leaderboard. After looking at it, I now remember that I also added a button on that leaderboard to easily edit that scenario. Go filter the main leaderboard to see your name and then hit that Max link in the last column. Hopefully, that scenario can give you some hope. For me, it sadly showed I had no shot to get into top 20.

Half of the Sweet-16 is set. This tournement hasnt had any big shockers yet. We did have one #2 seed go down. #10-Arkansas knocked out the lowest of the #2-seeds, St Johns. It was an exciting game that featured two of the most winning coaches in college basketball: John Calipari vs. Rick Pitino. Both won national titles while coaching Kentucky. Both also are the only coaches to take three different schools to the Final Four. Calipari got the victory today but Pitino was more snappy.


(Side Note: I just checked the facts and was very surprised that 15 other coaches have taken two schools to the Final Four. Most notably Roy Williams and Lute Olson.)

No new prize awards determined today, but we did have some movement in the Big Leaderboard. Jack Wertz moves to the top of the leaderboard. David Templer is in second place (and another now in 7th). Mike Balousek moves into third.

In the Women's Tournament, the First Round is complete. Evan Whetstone and Cash Deibert have only missed one single game and are at the top of the Women's Leaderboard.

FYI, #7-UCLA lost tonight to #2-Tennessee. Next year is the year for UCLA. The Dynasty will return.


BIG12 moves to the top of the Conference Stats. They have only lost 1 of their 7 teams so far. BIG10 still looking good despite UCLA and Wisconsin getting knocked out today. Big East taking a big hit on Saturday with St Johns and Creighton losing. Only UConn remains of the original 5 Big East bids. And ACC same as yesterday with Duke the only team left and waiting to play on Sunday.

Dont forget that tomorrow night (Sunday) you will be able to start submitting your second-chance SWEET-16 bracket. It is independent of your full 64 team bracket and is just another way to win prizes. See the SWEET-16 FAQ page if you are not familiar with it.

Not too much drama today with the higher seeds generally winning on Friday. #12-Colorado State did beat #5-Memphis but it is absolutely NOT an upset. The betting line in Vegas had CSU favored by 1.5 points. In this pool, 54% picked CSU to beat Memphis.

David Templer is at the top of Big Leaderboard and takes home the $250 prize for being the Round-1 Leader. Amazingly, he also has another bracket in second place. Mike Burke moves up to third place. Previous pool champion, Pete Moutvic is lurking at the four spot. A special shout out to my daughter Sarah in 8th place and my nephew Tommy Wright in 12th.

Dave Forberg, Travis Carr, and Pete Keskey all had perfect brackets on the second day and will split the $250 prize for Best Second Day.

There are 18 people who went for the last place prize (LAST PLACE). With not as many upsets this year, this is the earliest I think I have ever called it a final. Scott Nelson has locked it up and takes home the $250 prize. Once prizes are final, you can see the recap on the FINAL RESULTS page.

The Women's First Round started today. For this year, I decided to allow each person to enter one Women's bracket. About two-thirds of the people created a bracket. Eric Bacon and Cameron Kirke are currently at the top of the WOMENS LEADERBOARD and still have a perfect bracket. The winner will take home a $700 prize. Second and Third Place also pay a decent prize.

The BIG10 still crushing it on the CONFERENCE STATS page. The BIG10 is 8-0. The BIG12 looks good at 6-1 with only Kansas out. For the SEC, 6 of the 14 are already gone. And the ACC only has one team left, although it is Duke who looked strong today.

We have a record 692 brackets this year across 414 people. With that many brackets, there is going to be a large payout to the big winner. Knowing that the bracket numbers are increasing, I am always looking for ways to spread the wealth and pay out more prizes. This year I added one Woman's bracket for every person.

Regarding that Women's bracket, I did cut off all edits and entries at same tip as the men's tip. I now realize that the final two women's play-in games were not yet complete. Next year, I will allow edits until the first women's tip on Friday. For the men's leaderboard, I wrote code several years ago that does an automated pull of the final results from ESPN, so the men's leaderboard is updated every 5 minutes. I didn't have time to do the same for the women's games, so I will be entering the winners manually this year. Hence, the leaderboard might be delayed in posting up to date results.

A few lower seeds won on Thursday, but none were too shocking. A #12-seed wins a game nearly every year, so the #5-Clemson loss to #12-McNeese wasn't that surprising. There are still three perfect brackets in the pool. Michael Weiler, David Templer, and Austin Russell all went 16 for 16 today and will split the $250 prize for the best first day. David Templer impressively has two brackets in the Top 10, and his brother Mike is in 4th. Is it genetic?

I feel my bracket is already teetering on edge of bustedness. I picked #5-Clemson to the Elite-8, and they are already out. On Selection Sunday, dumb me listened to Clark Kellogg pick Clemson to the Final Four. That unfortunate interaction put Clemson in the back of my brain just like that 1-800-Kars4Kids commercial. I just couldn't get Clemson out of my head. Darn.

Check out the BRACKETS STATS page to see which Champs were the most picked and who picked which teams in each game. #1-Duke was the most picked Champion with almost 30% of the brackets picking the Blue Devils. #1-Florida was close behind with almost a quarter of the brackets picking the Gators. The other #1-seeds (Auburn 9.8% and Houston 8.9%) round out top for with the next 2 spots. That means over 73% of the brackets picked a #1-seed. All the #2-seeds were the next most picked with Michigan State the highest at 5.5%. A few people picked #7-Kansas and #5-Clemson and have their Champs already knocked out on the first day.

Was the SEC overrated? They got a record 14 teams in, but already have 3 knocked out. They are 4-3. The BIG10 looking tops at 4-0 and the Big East also undefeated. The ACC only got 4 teams in and 2 are already out (#5-Clemson and #8-Louisville). Ouch! All the conference stats are on the CONFERENCE STATS page.

I am finding it very hard to get used to the new mega-conferences. I am happy to have UCLA come to the Midwest more often since they are now BIG10. I got to see the Bruins beat Northwestern just 5 miles from my house this year. But, I still miss the PAC-12. Wasn't it better when each conference had just the right amount of teams so you played every team home and away in the regular season. That felt right. Let's not even get started on the Transfer Portal. Am I complaining like a curmudgeon? Or, should I accept that change is inevitable?



Thanks for all who have already paid. With electronic payments being so easy now, I already have over 80% of brackets paid on first day. The Weasels on are on the UNPAID WEASEL list. Don't be a weasel. Send you entry fee today. Details on how to pay are on the PAYMENT OPTIONS page.

Several people asking about paying for the Women's Bracket. No need. Its a free entry that gives you another way to win money. With so many entries, I always looks for ways to pay out other prizes.

I intended to create an Women's Bracket last year. With Kaitlin Clarke and the awesome Final Four last year, that would have been the year to strike when the iron was hot. But this year, the UCLA Bruins are the overall #1 seed, so there is still very high interest in my house. I am expecting a great Final Four!

A quick note regarding the email invites. Many apparently went to SPAM on Saturday. I use MailChimp to send the email, but they still get caught by the filters. Just reach out if you want in but didn't get the invite.

Two play-in games are done. The NC Tar Heels were dominant in their victory, which should quiet the complainers who said they didn't deserve to get in - minus West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey shown below. He called the Mountaineer snub "a miscarriage of justice". Really?? 10-10 in Conference and they lost their first game in the Big12 Conference Tourney to the very bottom seed Colorado. I am sure their Head Coach is committed to get them into the tourney next year.

Scott's March Madness is back! The brackets will be announced this Sunday evening.

The price per bracket is again $20. This year I added a new price for the Women's NCAA Tournament. Every person that enters will get to fill out a bracket for the Women's Tournament. All the prize payouts will be dependent on the number of brackets entered. Please see the POOL RULES page for the details.

The tournament has 4 play-in games on Tuesday and Wednesday. These games will not be counted in the pool scoring. You have until first tip-off on Thursday, March 20th to enter your brackets.

As always, all the entry fees that come in will go back out prizes to the winners. The one exception is a charity donation to the Jimmy V Foundation.

If you have any questions, please email me at scott@scottandlis.com. Please put the word "NCAA" in the subject line so that I don’t miss your email in my spam.

Good Luck!