#GiantBrackets, 2011-Present

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2011

Ten years ago, I made my first-ever #GiantBracket, inspired by the Mid-Majority:

And what a year for it, as it turned out!

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2012

I couldn’t find one photo showing the 2012 #GiantBracket in its final, post-championship form, but here are a few photos that collectively show most of it.

Heading into the Sweet Sixteen:

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Heading into the championship game:

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After the title game:

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The “2-year-old overlord” comment refers to the fact that our middle daughter won my office pool that year, with Kentucky’s championship clinching her win.

Also in 2012, we did a #GiantBracket for the women’s tournament, which (unlike dad’s bracket) the girls had free rein to draw on:

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2013

The first major #GiantBracket subplot in 2013 was the LaSalle “Explorers” earning the fandom of one Dora the Explorer:

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Also, Harvard fought fiercely and won!

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But then Wichita State became the big story, first by making me sad (beating Gonzaga), then by making me happy (with another Mid-Majority run to the Final Four).

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2014

A year later, Wichita State wasn’t a Cinderella surprise, but an undefeated #1 seed. Bally was excited!

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And this wasn’t just any mid-major dream season. The Mid-Majority’s 10-year run was ending whenever the last mid-major played its last game in 2014, and Wichita State was clearly the best hope for #TMM to “end in a win.”

So the Shockers’ loss in a second-round thriller to regular-season underachiever and eventual Final Four team Kentucky, a.k.a. the most talented 8-seed ever, was one of the more heartbreaking of the #GiantBracket era.

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With Wichita out, the #GiantBracket’s lonely eyes looked to Dayton:

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But alas, it ended — as always — in a loss.

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2015

I don’t have as much to say about 2015, but here’s that year’s final bracket:

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2016

The most memorable bit of the #GiantBracket in 2016 was the bipolar ride of Northern Iowa. First, exquisite joy:

And then, unfathomable sadness:

The final bracket:

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2016 also saw another very colorful #GiantBracket for the women’s tournament:

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2017

In 2017, the #GiantBracket left Colorado for the first time, as we were on spring break in Puerto Rico during the tournament’s second weekend. So I rolled it up, brought it on the plane with us….

https://twitter.com/MileHighBrendan/status/843719226816843776
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https://twitter.com/MileHighBrendan/status/845800493700009984

We were back home in time for the Final Four, and Gonzaga’s first championship game appearance.

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But alas…

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2018

This was probably the most memorable #GiantBracket of all-time, and if you remember what happened in the first round that year, you know why.

And then the #GiantBracket boarded an airplane again (for Final Four weekend this time), to Mexico.

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Also, I was so damn excited about the Notre Dame women’s buzzer-beating national title, it, uh, sort of took over the championship line on the men’s bracket… 🙂

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2019

Like 2015, the 2019 #GiantBracket was a comparatively boring one, so I’ll just post the final bracket:

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2020

This, of course, was the saddest #GiantBracket ever.

Last in the evening on March 9, realizing that the tourney was in jeopardy, I made this whiteboard:

And then on March 12…

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https://twitter.com/TomKopacz/status/1238242241195409409

2021

This year, I debuted the #GiantWallOfBrackets for the conference tournaments:

And then…