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Vanhorn and Letourneau in running for $100

by TREVAN PIXLEY
Sports Editor | March 31, 2022 1:00 AM

March Madness certainly lived up to its moniker this season.

St. Peters went on one of the most miraculous runs in the history of the tournament. Gonzaga failed to make it past the Sweet 16, and Coach K’s retirement tour remained alive and well with each passing game as Duke advanced to the Final Four.

After an entertaining round one and two, with competitive action in rounds three and four, the Final Four is officially set.

North Carolina, Duke, Villanova, and Kansas have survived the madness and will play on Saturday, April 2 in New Orleans for the right to play in the national championship game.

Now, let’s update the Bonner County Daily Bee's Final Four challenge standings.

Just as a reminder, the first criteria of the contest is picking the right national champion, the second is picking the two teams playing in the championship game correctly, the third is the amount of Final Four teams picked correctly, and the fourth and final tiebreaker is the score prediction for the championship game.

First of all, it’s clear that Gonzaga’s loss broke the hearts of not only the fans, but many of those who entered the contest. 75 percent of entries had Gonzaga reaching the Final Four, and 75 percent of those who picked the Bulldogs to go to the Final Four had them win the championship game.

Gonzaga was the overwhelming fan-favorite, with the next closest winner-pick being Arizona, with less than 12 percent of votes.

Whether it's recency bias or not, this year's edition of March Madness seemed to have a lot more bracket busters than in recent years. In fact ESPN.com had less than .03 percent of brackets predicted the Final Four.

In the Bonner County Daily Bee’s Final Four contest, the best Final Four prediction consists of two teams.

Ben Vanhorn still has Villanova and Kansas remaining, but after Saturday, he’ll be down to just one remaining Final Four team.

However, with Vanhorn having two teams in the Final Four, that just might be enough for him to win the contest.

Currently, there are nine contestants remaining with a possibility of having one of their Final Four teams in the championship game.

The problem is, 62 percent of the contestants don’t have its remaining Final Four teams advancing to the championship game, whereas Vanhorn does.

He does have them losing in the championship game, however.

Out of the nine remaining entries with one Final Four teams remaining, eight of them picked Kansas.

Vanhorn’s direct line to victory is if Villanova defeats Kansas this weekend, and he’ll still have a shot even if Kansas wins because only one entry has Kansas selected to win it all.

Susanne Letourneau had Kansas beating Gonzaga in the championship game 78-76, but if Kansas were to win the tournament, she'd be crowned champion.

Right now, it’s a battle between Vanhorn and Letourneau, and it’s going to come down to Villanova vs Kansas on Saturday, April 2.