Marquette busts NFL star Bijan Robinson’s perfect NCAA tournament bracket
Atlanta Falcons running back Bijan Robinson had a perfect NCAA men’s basketball tournament bracket after the first full day of action.
You probably did not.
But don’t feel bad.
More than 99% of people who are taking part in the annual ritual of trying to predict the outcome of 63 games already had fallen short of perfection after only the first 16 games.
Times columnist Bill Plaschke makes his picks and predictions for every game in the 2024 NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
The NCAA’s March Madness site is tracking the number of remaining perfect brackets in real time. Before the start of Friday’s games, the site reported that out of 31 million brackets submitted in major online games (their own, as well as those run by ESPN, CBS and Yahoo) only around 2,100 unblemished brackets remain.
Surprisingly, that’s actually better than we were all doing at that time last year, when only 787 brackets were left unscathed after Day 1, according to the NCAA.
So when was your bracket busted Thursday? Chances are, it happened pretty early in the day. The NCAA reported that less than 14% of all brackets were still intact after the first two results of the day — No. 9 Michigan State over No. 8 Mississippi State in the West Regional and No. 11 Duquesne over No. 6 Brigham Young in the East Regional.
Lakers star LeBron James is pulling for Duquesne, coached by his former high school coach Keith Dambrot, in the NCAA tournament. The Dukes upset BYU in the first round.
The biggest upset of the day was No. 14 Oakland defeating No. 3 Kentucky in the South Regional, a game that ended at around 6 p.m. PDT with four night games still to be played. At that point, though, only 16,000 out of tens of millions of brackets remained impeccable, the NCAA reported.
After the late games, which included No. 11 North Carolina State’s upset of No. 6 Texas Tech in the South Regional, the NCAA March Madness X account tweeted that only .00038% of all brackets were still perfect.
It turns out one of those .00038-percenters was Robinson, who rushed for 976 yards with four touchdowns last season after being selected eighth overall by the Falcons in the 2023 NFL draft.
USC standout McKenzie Forbes and Saint Mary’s guard Mason Forbes are the brother-sister duo competing for March Madness glory in the NCAA tournament.
“Perfect day 1 haha kinda dope,” Robinson tweeted along with a repost of an NCAA March Madness tweet that showed his immaculate bracket.
Robinson’s quest to become the first known person to ever achieve complete bracket perfection came to an end early Friday afternoon. His predicted upset in the South Regional didn’t come to fruition, as No. 2 Marquette overcame a 10-point first-half deficit to defeat No. 15 Western Kentucky 87-69.
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