Admittedly the first and second round picks were far from perfect on both the men’s and women’s side but three out of four Final Four picks on both sides are still alive including both finalists so we’ve got that going for us.
Looking ahead to this weekend….
Women’s Bracket: Not a ton of surprises on the women’s side of the bracket but we did call the Rochester Tech Sweet 16 appearance. We had Illinois Wesleyan all the way to the Final Four and Trine knocked them out. The StatGeek Index has loved them all year so maybe we should have given them that one, but congrats to Trine into the Sweet 16.
Moving forward, we’re going to stick with Amherst, Thomas More and Bowdoin to go to Minnesota then we’ll add Wartburg to the mix over St Thomas in that bracket. We had St Thomas into the elite eight originally but over Whitman rather than the surprising East Texas Baptist. We’ll come back next week and preview the semifinals and championship but we’re sticking with Thomas More over Bowdoin.
Men’s Bracket: Lots of surprises on this side but the Index has loved Nebraska Wesleyan so not too shocking to see them top Wash U. The interesting thing is how Nebraska Wesleyan’s win shakes up the rest of the bracket. We still have MIT and John Carroll advancing to the national semifinals and John Carroll to the finals. On the other side, the Index likes Nebraska Wesleyan over Whitman and then over Plattsburgh State to advance to the championship and we think they have a great chance of winning it all.
Look out for Swarthmore, Hamilton and UW-Oshkosh, all three are only slight underdogs in their games so we wouldn’t be surprised to see any of the three advance and shake up the rest of the bracket but for now, it’s MIT, John Carroll, Nebraska Wesleyan and Plattsburgh to go the Final Four.