NCAA Tournament: How Arizona’s Loss Busted (Almost) Everyone’s Bracket

If Arizona’s shocking loss to Buffalo in the first round of the NCAA Tournament crushed your dreams of winning an office pool, just know you’re not alone.

A whole bunch of brackets spiraled down the drain Thursday night when No. 13 Buffalo defeated No. 4 Arizona 89-68 in the tourney’s most surprising upset so far. The Wildcats were seen by many as a legitimate threat to make the Final Four and perhaps even win the national championship.

According to ESPN’s Tournament Challenge, 4.9 percent of all brackets submitted picked No. 4 Arizona to cut down the nets — more than No. 1 Xavier, No. 2s Purdue and Cincinnati, and No. 3s Michigan, Tennessee and Texas Tech.

Here’s more on how Arizona’s loss impacted brackets, according to ESPN’s Tournament Challenge:

Here’s how Arizona’s loss impacted the brackets over at CBS Sports:

Long story short: Arizona losing to Buffalo changes everything.

If you bought into the hype, which seemed justifiable given the Wildcats’ potential with one of the best players in the country, DeAndre Ayton, you were rewarded with a slap in the face right out of the gate.

But if you foresaw an early exit for Arizona — maybe not against Buffalo; but at some point before the Sweet 16 or Elite Eight — and put your eggs in another team’s basket in the South region, then you’re in a pretty good spot relative to your bracket-following peers.

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