2024 March Madness recap - how did our Optimal Bracket do?
I hope everyone had a wonderful March Madness tournament!
From a pure basketball perspective, this year’s men’s tournament was underwhelming - no game-winning buzzer beater, only 5 games in OT, and champion UConn blowing through the tournament with double-digit wins in each game.
That said, Jack Gohlke and the Oakland Golden Grizzlies’ win over Kentucky set in motion an avalanche of a coaching carousel season and DJ Burns and NC State’s run to the Final Four provided us a fun Cinderella story (though some argue that the Wolfpack shouldn’t be considered a Cinderella).
The women’s tournament also had a favorite win it all, but its star-studded final had more viewers than the men’s final for the first time.
Optimal Bracket results
Unfortunately, the Men’s Optimal Bracket placed only in the 71st percentile of all ESPN brackets, equivalent to 6th place in a typical 20-person bracket pool. This was its worst year yet:
2024: 6th 😭
2023: 3rd 🥉
2022: 4th 😢
2021: 3rd 🥉
2019: 1st 🏆🥇
2018: 2nd 🥈
The reason our poor performance this year is straightforward: we gambled against the crowd favorite UConn, knowing that if they lost, it would slingshot us up the rankings, giving us a better chance of winning it all. Instead, UConn put together a historic run through the tournament, cementing the program as a modern dynasty.
The winner in your pool was almost undoubtedly someone who just went full chalk, picking the top two teams UConn and Purdue to meet in the championship game and the top overall seed UConn to win it all. Sometimes the Optimal Bracket will be that chalky, but this year the math said to zig to the crowd’s zag.
The Women’s Optimal Bracket did even more poorly - crowd favorites South Carolina and Iowa met in the final as many predicted, though if not for a last-second moving screen call on UConn, the result may have gone in our favor. Our bracket placed in the 49th percentile of all ESPN brackets.
How did you fare in your pools? Did you win any money? Were you close to winning it all? Let me know in the comment or reply - I read every comment.
See you next year! Be sure to stay subscribed - you’ll automatically get next year’s bracket when it’s available.