March Madness continues, and the intensity continues to build! Favorites went down in upsets, wreaking havoc on The Biggest Dance leaderboard. In the Sweet Sixteen, Alabama’s Crimson Tide rolled, sinking a barrage of three-point shots that could not be matched by the UNC offense – and the offense-minded Tide somehow also found a defense that re-establishes Alabama as a dangerous contender for the Tourney Title. Both Crimson offense and defense were on display as Alabama took out a surprisingly tough Clemson team to earn its spot in the Final Four.

Duke, Biggest Dance veteran Shannon White’s favorite team, snagged a spot in the Elite Eight from #1 seed Houston, awarding several lucky dancers with three upset points in addition to the four they received for the victory. Duke’s glory was short-lived, however, as NC State, the THIRD North Carolina school in the Sweet Sixteen, defeated the Blue Devils for a spot in the Final Four for only the second time in the team’s history and the first time since Coach Jimmy V’s legendary 1983 National Champion team.

Illinois took out Iowa State in a low-scoring defensive struggle in the Sweet 16 game, winning Illinois a date with destiny against the top-ranked UConn Huskies. The Fighting Illini put up a fight against the top-ranked Huskies for about 15 minutes until UConn decided to stop playing with its food and devoured Illinois in a 30-0 run, adding another huge win to a two-year rampage through the NCAA Tournament. Purdue, the number one seed in the Midwest region, showcased their often-maligned big man against Gonzaga in the Sweet Sixteen and Tennessee in the Elite Eight. Zach Edey, the tallest player in Big Ten history (towering over the competition at 7’4!!), was unstoppable, dropping a career-high 40 points and 16 rebounds in the quarter finals on Sunday.

As a result of a #11 and a #4 in the Final Four, The Biggest Dance leaderboard is practically unrecognizable from the beginning of the weekend. “Midwest Knows Best”, moving into fourth place after calling Clemson’s victory over number two seed Arizona, fell down the leaderboard after their bracket victor, UNC, was defeated by Alabama. “Chris Racc” rose from the middle of the pack to first place on The Biggest Dance’s leaderboard as he “racked” up the points and was one of 13 Dancers to select three of the teams in the Final Four. Special kudos to Rambler, who also called three of the final group but somehow managed to parlay that prowess into only a 69^th place standing entering the finals. While we are calling out special performances, we want to honor MikeyWheels #3 and PSU NL (tied for 464^th) who had their Nvidia AI enabled supercomputers working overtime to make their bracket picks – earning 0 bonus points throughout the Tourney.

Less than half of The Biggest Dance’s participants have their Champion pick still in the competition. Of those remaining, most are betting on UConn to claim the NCAA Championship title for the second year in a row. One lonely Dancer, Sammy the Bull (100^th), had the prescience to select NC State which would vault Sammy up the final standings into a money finish.

Sincerely,

The Commissioner