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Only 3 percent of Yahoo Sports Tourney Pick'em players have a complete Final Four left

Hey you.

Yes, you, the person crying over all those red lines on your bracket like you’re the Northwestern kid.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret: You’re not alone.

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You’re actually far from alone. Only 3 percent of people who entered the Yahoo Sports Tourney Pick’Em contest got through the first weekend with all four of their Final Four picks alive. Compare that to 10 percent who saw all four of their predictions zapped and you can see there is strength in numbers (as well as maybe a chance for you to still win your pool).

You were probably feeling pretty good after the first two days of the tournament, when a relative lack of upsets led to a record 36 people going an immaculate 32-for-32 in the first round.

But it was the second round in the East Region that did the major damage. First eighth-seeded Wisconsin took down top-seeded Villanova on Saturday afternoon, disappointing the 47.4 percent of people who picked the defending champions to get back to the Final Four.

Then second-seeded Duke took their supposed open road to the Final Four and allowed 65 second-half points to South Carolina to get bounced themselves on Sunday night. The Blue Devils had been picked by 41.3 percent to reach Glendale.

Throw in the ouster of Louisville (20.4) in the Midwest and Florida State in the West (5.0) and you have a lot of people shaking their heads and wondering where they could’ve gone so wrong.

But take some time for perspective: It could’ve been even worse had North Carolina, Kentucky and Oregon not ground out their victories in the second round.

Here are a few other stats from the Yahoo Sports Tourney Pick’Em pool:

• Only three people picked all 16 Sweet 16 teams correctly, including this entry that nailed 47-of-48 picks over the first weekend. Its only misstep? Picking fifth-seeded Minnesota to beat No. 12 Middle Tennessee in the first round.

• The most frequently-picked Final Four combination still alive is Baylor, Gonzaga, Kansas and North Carolina. No one has selected a Final Four consisting of South Carolina, Xavier, Michigan and Butler.

• The entry that started the tournament by nailing 39 straight picks before dropping a game on Purdue-Iowa State took some more damage on Sunday when Duke, Cincinnati and Louisville lost. That’ll happen to the best of us, though it should be noted all four of the entry’s Final Four picks are still alive.

(AP)
(AP)