The dream of a perfect bracket is almost over on the women’s side too.
After starting the day with a dozen undefeated Yahoo Sports users, all but one of the remaining NCAA tournament brackets were eliminated just two games into the back half of the second round on Monday.
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While one of those was eliminated after Louisville’s win over Alabama, the bulk of them were knocked out after Virginia pulled off a wild double-overtime upset to reach its first Sweet 16 since 2000.
The Cavaliers survived a battle in Iowa City to knock off No. 2 Iowa 83-75 in double overtime in the second round on Monday afternoon. Kymora Johnson led the way with 28 points, and Paris Clark added 20 points and seven rebounds in the marathon game.
Virginia has had to fight to stay alive the entire tournament. They beat Arizona State by two points in the First Four round on Thursday, and then surged ahead of Georgia in overtime in the first round. This marks the program’s just second NCAA tournament appearance in the last 16 seasons, and the team’s first trip to the second weekend since 2000 when Debbie Ryan was still running the program. The Hawkeyes, on the other hand, have now lost in the second round of the tournament in back-to-back years.
As a result, 10 of the remaining 11 brackets were wiped out. That left us with just one.
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After a very slow start to the tournament, only 55 brackets filled out by Yahoo Sports users survived the first round. Those quickly dwindled on Sunday, however, thanks in part to Minnesota’s buzzer-beater against Ole Miss. That eliminated more than 35 brackets alone, and brought the count under 20 for the first time.
The men’s side lost all of its perfect brackets on Saturday. After just six of them made it into the second round, Texas’ upset win over Gonzaga eliminated the rest.
Now, actually completing a perfect bracket is essentially an impossible task as it is. That’s part of the fun of the NCAA tournament. But maybe next year, we’ll actually have a few users reach the second weekend of the tournament. For now, it’s all up to one.