Well, that didn’t take very long.
Only 13.8% of brackets in the NCAA's bracket challenge remain perfect just two games into the NCAA Tournament. Lower seeds prevailed early to kick off March Madness as 9-seed Michigan State blew out 8-seed Mississippi State 69-51 before 11-seed Duquesne sent 6-seed BYU home with a 71-67 win.
The latter dealt the bigger blow to the public. Duquesne was a 9.5-point ‘dog, and most expected them to lose by double-digits, with 55% of the money backing BYU. The Dukes were also between +330 to +375 on the moneyline to win. Nonetheless, they went toe-to-toe with the Cougars, who were a trendy pick to go far. Instead, Duquesne won its first NCAA Tournament game since 1969.
While the public largely rued the upset, one particularly notable person was thrilled by the outcome – LeBron James. Duquesne head coach Keith Dambrot was James’ high school coach at St. Vincent-St.Mary, and he made sure all of his 52.8 million followers on X knew how proud he was.
Meanwhile, Michigan State easily handled Mississippi State in an 18-point blowout. The Spartans were 2-point 'dogs. However, while they might have busted brackets as a lower-seed coming out on top, they had a lot of love from the betting public. The Spartans were +110 on the ML, and 70% of all bets backed them to win straight up.
