In February Thomas Walkup passed Buddy Hield as the most valuable player in the country according to Value Add Basketball. Friday he scored 33 points to lead Stephen F. Austin’s upset of West Virginia to make the Breitbart All-American bracket 26-6 and in the 99th percentile according to ESPN’s calculations.
The Breitbart All-American and All-Conference teams were released on March 8 and were the basis for the All-American bracket posted Wednesday with the note: “If you want the top Breitbart Sports All-Americans and All-Conference players (pick) Kansas over Kentucky, with Duke and Iowa State in the Final Four.”
The only six winners not picked in the All-American bracket so far are Arkansas Little Rock, Hawaii, Middle Tennessee, Notre Dame, Syracuse and VCU, and only Middle Tennessee’s win over Michigan State eliminated the chance of future correct pieces. Even Michigan State was picked to win only two more games in this bracket, meaning the bracket could still theoretically have 55 of 63 lines correct.
All eight potential brackets were entered in the ESPN bracket challenge to track how they stacked up against the millions of brackets entered across the country.
All-American list 26-6 (99th percentile)
Breitbart Brackets Posted Monday 25-7 (98th)
Most NBA Talent 23-9 (84th)
Hottest Team 23-9 (84th)
Healthiest 21-11 (52nd)
Most Experience Guards 21-11 (52nd)
Value Analytics 21-11 (52nd)
President Obama’s Bracket 21-11 (52nd)
Better Seed 19-13
The first Breitbart Sports All-American team (2013) pegged the top player and point guard as Trey Burke and the next best point guard was a surprise pick of Shabazz Napier. Burke led Michigan to the title game, and Napier would lead UConn to a stunning title the next year. Frank Kaminsky was the surprise 2014 All-American, named February 15 — a month before he dominated in the NCAA tournament. The 2015 All-American team included Kaminsky as Player of the Year, and he shocked Kentucky and then outplayed fellow 1st Team All-American pick Jahlil Okafor, though Duke won the title.