Junior defies odds in March Madness bracket

Eric Stein correctly predicts the Final Four

Junior+defies+odds+in+March+Madness+bracket

Ed Walters, Sports Editor

For decades, millions of people across the country have been filling out brackets every March to try and correctly predict the national college basketball tournament, known as March Madness.

For most people, they would be lucky to correctly predict even one team, out of the 68 that make the tournament, to make it to the Final Four, but Junior Eric Stein managed to correctly predict all four teams that advanced to the national semi-final.

“I was one out of the 657 people to have a perfect Final Four…and that’s of course out of the over 18 million who entered [The ESPN tournament challenge],” Stein said.

While many avid sports fans might pour many hours into their brackets, Stein spent no more than a few minutes analyzing individual match ups.

Against the odds – Stein’s bracket that finished better than 99.5% of all entries.

“I tried to not overthink it, I went with what my gut was telling me and just rolled with it,” Stein said. “I think if you try to look too deep into [the matchups], you’ll end up doing worse than you might have following your heart.”

Despite his bracket being better than over 99% of brackets entered in ESPN’s competition, he was often ridiculed by his peers about how teams he chose to win.

“A lot of people were telling me My bracket was horrible, especially with having South Carolina in the Final Four when almost everyone had them losing to Duke in the round of 32,” Stein said.

While many people attribute his bracket to sheer luck, Stein believes he deserves some credit for his success.

“It definitely took some luck, but I watched plenty of basketball throughout the season and just picked the teams that looked good when I had seen them play,” Stein said.

Stein will replicate his success in future tournaments, but he is well aware of how unlikely his unprecedented success is and how unpredictable the tournament can be.

“At the end of the day, it’s just a bunch of college kids playing a game,” Stein said. Ill try and recreate some of the success I had this year for years to come, but I know these brackets are just for fun so I won’t stress it.”