The Imaginary Final Four

Just because all sports have been cancelled due to our impending doom doesn’t mean that we have to give up sports.

A player for East Tennessee State scores against Kansas
This year’s biggest surprise is the East Tennessee State Buccaneers, who made the Final Four as a number seven seed in the East.

For the past three weeks, I’ve been simulating the NCAA college basketball tournament, which would have been happening right now all over the country. On Sunday, March 15th, I announced the 68 teams that would play for the national championship of college basketball.

Over the last three weeks, we’ve seen some exciting games, buzzer beaters, and shocking upsets. From 68 teams, we are down to four. The Final Four teams are: East Tennessee State, Creighton, Duke, and Oregon.

Here is the bracket leading in to the Final Four:

The bracket so far, from the play-in games to the Final Four

Final Four Schedule

The schedule of Final Four games is:

Saturday April 4thMonday April 6th
4:07 PM: ETSU vs. Creighton
8:07 PM: Duke vs. Oregon
8:07 PM: NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Duke players celebrate winning something or other, like they always do, sigh
Who will win it all? PLEASE GOD NOT THESE GUYS AGAIN!

As always, results will be posted in real time (what would have been real time) on my Twitter feed at @fixthemadness. But there’s no reason we have to go without imaginary basketball between now and Saturday! I will also be simulating two other postseason tournaments: the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) and the College Basketball Invitational (CBI).

Here are the bracket and schedules for these two tournaments, starting with the NIT.

NIT Bracket and First Round Schedule

Monday March 30th

Noon ET: (3) Rhode Island vs. (6) Tennessee (East)
1 PM ET: (4) Syracuse vs. (5) Yale (East)
2 PM ET: (1) Alabama vs. (8) Prairie View A&M (South)
3 PM ET: (3) UConn vs. (6) South Carolina (Midwest)
4 PM ET: (2) Oklahoma vs. (7) Eastern Washington (West)
5 PM ET: (4) St. John’s vs. (5) Akron (Midwest)
6 PM ET: (3) North Texas vs. (6) SMU (South)
7 PM ET: (4) Texas vs. (5) Oregon State (South)
8 PM ET: (4) Memphis vs. (5) Oklahoma State (South)
9 PM ET: (1) Indiana vs. (8) Radford (East)
10 PM ET: (2) NC State vs. (7) Colgate (East)
11 PM ET: (3) Purdue vs. (6) Washington (West)

Tuesday March 31st

Midnight ET: (2) Minnesota vs. (7) Davidson (Midwest)
1 AM ET: (1) Northern Iowa vs. (8) Arkansas-Little Rock (Midwest)
2 AM ET: (2) Arizona State vs. (7) Virginia Commonwealth (South)
3 AM ET: (1) Stanford vs. (8) Wright State (West)
8:40 PM: (12) USC vs. (12) Mississippi State (East regional play-in game, Dayton)

CBI Bracket and Schedule

The CBI is low-budget, here’s the bracket handwritten on a sheet of scratch paper:

Tuesday March 31st

4 AM ET: (7) UNC Greensboro vs. (10) Utah
5 AM ET: (3) Furman vs. (14) Kansas State
6 AM ET: (5) Tulsa vs. (12) Georgia
7 AM ET: (6) Clemson vs. (11) Duquesne
8 AM ET: (2) Xavier vs. (15) Loyola-Chicago
9 AM ET: (8) DePaul vs. (9) Missouri
10 AM ET: (4) Georgetown vs. (13) Virginia Tech
11 AM ET: (1) North Carolina vs. (16) Northern Colorado

Twenty-four straight hours of college basketball starts right now!

Watch it happen live at @fixthemadness!

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