NCAA Tournament Bracket Challenge - Round 2, Day 2 Update

Sunday's Round of 32 games were loaded with upsets that wrecked havoc on the Mega March Madness Matchup Monstrosity collective brackets.  Many brackets picked (2) Marquette, (3) Baylor, or (4) Indiana to make deeper runs, but all three were handled relatively easily by their lower-seeded opponents.  The three other 3-seeds (Xavier, Kansas State, and Gonzaga) as well as (4) UConn all punched their ticket to the Sweet 16, as did (9) Florida Atlantic, who finally put down the 16-seed Cinderella, Fairleigh Dickinson.  The teams with the most impressive performances of the day in my opinion were (4) UConn, (5) Miami, and (6) Creighton, who all appear to be able to make a real push for the Final Four as lower seeds.

With all that said, the 2023 Sweet 16 is officially set.  We'll have four games on Thursday and four games on Friday before the Elite 8 begins on Saturday night.  Here's the schedule for Thursday and Friday:

Thursday

East Region - New York, NY
(7) Michigan State vs. (3) Kansas State - 6:30pm
(9) Florida Atlantic vs. (4) Tennessee - 9:00pm

West Region - Las Vegas, NV
(8) Arkansas vs. (4) UConn - 7:15pm
(3) Gonzaga vs. (2) UCLA - 9:45pm

Friday

South Region - Louisville, KY
(5) San Diego State vs. (1) Alabama - 6:30pm
(15) Princeton vs. (6) Creighton - 9:00pm

Midwest Region - Kansas City, MO
(5) Miami vs. (1) Houston - 7:15pm
(3) Xavier vs. (2) Texas - 9:45pm

Our bracket challenge leader has created a bit of separation from the remainder of entrants, though there's still a lot of tournament left.  And if the final 15 games of the tournament resemble the 48 that have already occurred, we're due for plenty of madness in the final rounds.

Here's our leaderboard as it stands now:
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1. Trizzy Tre (430 points)

• Points Remaining: 1080
• Champion: Tennessee
• Final Four: Alabama, Houston, Kansas, Tennessee

T2. Back2Back (380 points)

• Points Remaining: 1040

• Champion: Alabama
• Final Four: Alabama, Texas, UCLA, Marquette

T2. winning bracket (380 points)

• Points Remaining: 840
• Champion: Miami
• Final Four: West Virginia, Miami, UConn, Memphis

4. Disappointing (360 points)

• Points Remaining: 320

• Champion: Kansas
• Final Four: Alabama, Texas, Kansas, Purdue

5. Drew (340 points)

• Points Remaining: 800

• Champion: Houston
• Final Four: Arizona, Houston, UConn, Purdue

6. Swatson (330 points)

• Points Remaining: 1040

• Champion: Texas
• Final Four: Alabama, Texas, Gonzaga, Purdue

7. Micah's Bracket (300 points)

• Points Remaining: 960

• Champion: Alabama
• Final Four: Alabama, Texas, Kansas, Purdue

The Sweet 16 begins on Thursday.  Check back Friday morning for an update after the first four games of the third round.

Written by Nick Swatson