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FanPulse March Madness: Round of 32 votes are in...

You’re never going to believe who the voters picked...

By Sam Snelling
NCAA BASKETBALL: MAR 29 Div I Men’s Championship - Elite Eight - Duke v Gonzaga Photo by Ken Murray/Icon Sportswire/Corbis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

We’re back after a chalky round one to see what happens in the round of 32 of our FanPulse NCAA Tournament.

Last week’s voting favored the higher seed by a lot, with only five total upsets. Three of those upsets happened in the West Region, and f three were also 9 seed upsets of an 8 seed. So hardly an upset. Surely with a new round of picks there’d be a little more madness to our March, right?

Let’s see who we picked:

South Region

1. ** REDACTED ** (87%) def. 8. Saint Mary’s (13%)

4. Seton Hall (57%) def. 5. Ohio State (43%)

3. Maryland (52%) def. 6. Virginia (48%)

2. Kentucky (78%) def. 7 Providence (22%)

NCAA Basketball: Michigan at Maryland Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Hmmm, top four seeds move on.

Virginia kept it close, and the FBI couldn’t sideline ** REDACTED ** enough to force a loss. So the top four seeds move on.

West Region

1. Gonzaga (91%) def. 9. Oklahoma (9%)

4. Oregon (52%) def. 5. Iowa (48%)

3. Duke (75%) def. 11. Marquette (25%)

2. San Diego State (66%) def. 10. Texas Tech (34%)

NCAA Basketball: Ohio State at Iowa Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports

Chalk, chalk, chalk, chalk.

Honestly, it was easier to see in this region. I was very high on the Zags all year, and Duke and SDSU had been so good all year long. Oregon vs Iowa could get dicey as the Ducks probably would’ve had to devise a solid plan to slow down Iowa’s really good offensive attack. And Luke Garza is very good. I would’ve taken the Hawkeyes.

Midwest Region

1. Baylor (89%) def. 9. Arizona State (11%)

4. Wisconsin (54%) def. 5. Butler (46%)

3. Villanova (65%) def. 6. Penn State (35%)

2. Florida State (77%) def. 7. West Virginia (23%)

NCAA Basketball: Villanova at Seton Hall Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

Well, will you look at that? All four top seeds.

East Region

1. Dayton (85%) def. 9. Florida (15%)

4. Louisville (59%) def. 5. Michigan (41%)

3. Michigan State (66%) def. 6. Auburn (34%)

2. Creighton (68%) def. 7. Illinois (32%)

NCAA Basketball: Seton Hall at Creighton Reese Strickland-USA TODAY Sports

So in a season with an incredibly low efficiency margin difference (only 9 EM points separate #2 from #30) it seems unlikely we’d have the top four seeds in all four quadrants move on, but here we are.

Just think, we’ve got four more of these to go.

My advice? Vote the underdogs. Maybe it’ll get interesting and we’ll actually see some upsets.

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