Once March arrives, college basketball turns into a dog-eat-dog world. Just ask the No.1 overall seed Virginia Cavaliers, which lost by 20 points last night to the University of Maryland-Baltimore County Retrievers in the 2018 NCAA Men’s Tournament Round of 64.
UMBC’s win over UVA was historic. It was the first time a No. 16 seed defeated to a No. 1 seed in the history of the men’s tournament. No. 16 seeds had been winless in previous 135 men’s tournament games against a No.1 seed.
While there weren’t a ton of upsets in this year’s round of 64, the upsets that did occur were notable. No, 4 seed Arizona, a trendy pick to win it all, got blown out by No. 13 seed Buffalo. Another No. 4 seed, Wichita State, lost their first round game to another No. 13 seed in Marshall.
NBC News chief White House correspondent Hallie Jackson has emerged as the leader of The 2018 TVNewser Bracket Challenge after Round 1. Jackson, who has Villanova winning it all, presently has 26 points.
Right behind Jackson are CNN Early Start co-host Dave Briggs, and CNBC markets reporter Dominic Chu, each with 25 points going into the Round of 32, which tips off shortly with No. 9 Alabama vs. No. 1 Villanova at 12:10 p.m. ET on CBS.
Nine participants have 24 points, and they hail from myriad networks, including CNBC, NBC News, CNN, Fox News, Fox Business, PBS.
Additional shout outs to Squawk Box co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin, PBS NewsHour anchor and senior correspondent Hari Sreenivasan, NBC News’s Capitol Hill correspondent and MSNBC Kasie DC host Kasie Hunt, all of whom picked Buffalo over Arizona.
CNBC evp Brian Steel and CNBC Tech editorial director Matt Rossoff, PBS NewsHour correspondent Lisa Desjardins, Fox News White House correspondent Kevin Corke, Fox Business Countdown to the Closing Bell anchor Liz Claman, NBC News Weekend Today meteorologist Dylan Dreyer, and NBC News’s Sunday Today host / Morning Joe co-host Willie Geist, and HLN Morning Express anchor Robin Meade all chose Marshall over Wichita State.
CNBC Squawk on the Street, Squawk Alley senior executive producer Todd Bonin adroitly chose Buffalo over Wichita State.