As the second round of the NCAA’s March Madness nears its conclusion, all perfect brackets long have been eliminated.

While this may come as a surprise, those non-perfect brackets includes my very own, with a projection of the Arizona Wildcats taking home the title.

For this failure I would like to make my sincerest apologies to not only Belvidere High School, but also The Buccaneer, as I once again have fallen short of many people’s expectations of my long overdue perfect bracket.

I was certain that 2022 would finally be my year; I was so absolutely certain that I made the bold, yet unwise decision to bet on a BIG 10 team to succeed in March, as I had the fifth-seeded Iowa Hawkeyes in my Final Four.

If you’ve paid any attention to the tournament, you would know that pick didn’t go over great, as the Hawkeyes made a first-round exit to the 12th-seeded Spiders of the University of Richmond.

This brings forward one of the key aspects of March: Never bet on the BIG 10. The conference started with eight teams, but only two remain: Purdue and Michigan.

This is pretty pathetic to think about considering the fact that the 11th-seeded Michigan probably shouldn’t even be in the tournament. The Wisconsin Badgers pretty much lost a home game as they lost to Iowa State in Milwaukee.

Besides Iowa’s loss I have to say I’m feeling pretty good about my Final Four, as I had Arizona, Purdue, and Gonzaga all making it out of their respective regions.

The story of the tournament so far has absolutely been the 15th-seeded Peacocks of St. Peters University, as they beat the second-seeded Kentucky Wildcats and seventh-seeded Murray State Racers to make the Sweet 16. Amazingly, St. Peters’ enrollment isn’t even above 2,500 students compared to Kentucky’s 22,000 total students.

Because of teams like the Peacocks, this tournament has been another greatly entertaining, yet ever frustrating March. While my bracket is busted, I have to look forward to next year, in which I will defy the one in 9.2 quintillion odds to at last get my perfect bracket.

If I had to make another prediction for this year’s Final Four, I would keep the top-seeded Arizona and Gonzaga making it with North Carolina and Kansas also making it out of their regions.

There’s always next year….

WINNERS: St. Peter’s, North Carolina, Michigan, Iowa State, Miami, The Big 12 Conference

LOSERS: Kentucky, Iowa, horrible technical calls, the BIG 10 Conference