Women’s National Championship recap
USA TODAY’s Meghan Hall breaks down UConn’s win over South Carolina in the NCAA National Championship.
Sports Seriously
With the entire women’s NCAA Tournament in the books and UConn cutting down the nets, the hope of having a perfect bracket for one lucky fan will have to wait another season.
However, the drought almost came to an end this year.
According to ESPN, one user in its Women’s Bracket Challenge came one game short of beating the impossibly long odds of predicting all 63 games of the March Madness tournament perfectly in their bracket.
The only incorrect game in that user’s bracket came in the first round of the tournament, as they had No. 8 seed Utah advancing to the second round to play then-defending champion and No. 1 seed South Carolina. The Utes, of course, were “upset” by No. 9 seed Indiana in that first-round game thanks to a dominating 27-16 third-quarter performance.
Notable picks from the user included two 7-10 upsets in the first round, as No. 10 seeds South Dakota State and Oregon beat No. 7 seeds Oklahoma State and Vanderbilt, respectively. The user also got a close call in the second between No. 4 seed Maryland and No. 5 seed Alabama, with the Terrapins needing to overcome a 17-point deficit to beat the Crimson Tide in double overtime.
ESPN also noted that one user started an impressive 57-0 on their bracket, which was the longest perfect streak in the history of the tournament.
In Sunday’s national championship game, UConn rolled through South Carolina for the second time this season for their 12th women’s NCAA Tournament national title under Geno Auriemma. It also put a fitting touch on an illustrious career for Huskies star guard Paige Bueckers, who is the likely candidate for the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA draft.
Of the 3.4 million brackets in ESPN’s Women’s Tournament Challenge, 20.4% of brackets had the Huskies cutting down the nets in Tampa at Amalie Arena.
There was also one user on CBS Sports’ bracket challenge that came one win shy of a perfect bracket, per the Associated Press.
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