One perfect NCAA bracket remains in Yahoo Tourney Pick'em
And then there was one.
Yes, after 32 "second-round" games (we put that in quotes because really it's Round 1) in this year's NCAA tournament – and one more starting Saturday's action – a perfect bracket does remain.
Congratulations Brad Binder of "Brad's Breathtaking Bracket," your bracket really is breathtaking. You picked Mercer over Duke. You picked Dayton over Ohio State. And you got lucky as hell when VCU bailed out Stephen F. Austin with a four-point play in the closing seconds of regulation and wound up losing in overtime.
You picked all 32 games correctly on Thursday and Friday, kept rolling on Saturday, going 4-for-4 so far, and for that, we commend you.
Binder, 23, told Yahoo Sports that "I did all my picks in under five minutes."
He picked Mercer because "Duke was soft all year and they live and die by the 3 ball. Mercer has that chemistry."
Of the millions who entered the much-publicized Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge, none made it through the Round of 64 unscathed. And no perfect brackets remain in ESPN's bracket challenge, either. But Brad's bracket in the regular Yahoo Sports' Tourney Pick'em pool – his bracket was not entered in the Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge – is still perfect, and a close look reveals he could go all the way.
Yeah, he has Stephen F. Austin beating UCLA in the third round, and Oregon (a seven-seed) going to the Final Four, but aside from that none of his picks are long shots.
And, no, don't thumb your nose at the Oregon pick. Do you have a perfect bracket?
Florida, Michigan State and Michigan are his other Final Four picks, and he has Michigan State beating Michigan to win it all.
Is an all Michigan final a long shot? Sure, but consider this: Not a single Yahoo Sports player made it to Round 3 perfect last year. Brad's already beaten some pretty long odds. A year ago, the best coming out of the Round of 64 was a pair of 30-for-32 brackets. And now here's Brad, from Buffalo Grove, Ill., going 36-for-36 and counting.
"It's crazy!" he told Yahoo Sports. "Still can't believe it! Now I just need to channel all this winning energy to help my [Chicago] Cubs win the World Series."
For Cubs fans out there, he's "calling it ... 2017."
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