Alex Hermann, the 17-year-old Chicago resident who caused an Interwebs sensation with a seemingly perfect bracket through two full rounds of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, has proven to be human after all. The kid who saw Northern Iowa-Kansas and Ohio University-Georgetown coming a mile away could not predict Butler’s 63-59 win over Syracuse on Thursday, ending his skein of perfection and putting his NCAA picks record at a paltry 51-1.
Here is his Bracket of No Longer Perfect.
Meanwhille, my three pool brackets have requested federal bailout money, claiming that they are “too big to fail.”
Conspiracy theorists are sharpening their talons at this hour, as Hermann lost a game on the first day of games since his so-called perfect bracket was brought to the attention lf the public. Some claimed shenanigans when NBC Chicago ran its story on his 48-0 start after two rounds, noting that the contest he entered, CBS Bracket Manager, allows you to change picks after the tournament has started. Hermann’s mother and older brother, however, deny that any bracket tampering took place.
It all ended on Thursday night in the West Regional Round of 16, as top-seeded Syracuse sputtered in the second half and lost to No. 5 Butler, 63-59. Hermann correctly picked Kansas State’s double overtime win over Xavier, West Virginia over Washington and Kentucky over Cornell. All were favorites.
Is this the NCAA Tournament version of finding the Balloon Boy in the attic? We’ll probably never know. It just brings to mind the Ricky Gervais bit about taking an autistic teen to a casino so he can win money at blackjack. After losing several hands, Ricky throws some toothpicks on the floor to see if the kid can count them. The kid has no idea how many there are.
“There’s seven!” screams an exasperated Gervais. “I can see myself that there’s seven!”
Tonight, Alex likes Northern Iowa, Purdue, Tennessee and Baylor. Good news for Duke fans?
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Autistic kid’s perfect NCAA tourney bracket: The new Balloon Boy hoax? [Out of Bounds]
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- Threat Level: Midnight - Mar 26, 2010 at 1:06 PM
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Exceptional my ass.
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- dutchboy - Mar 26, 2010 at 2:26 PM
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You’re a bozo. The only sad thing here is the young man is Cubs fan.
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- G - Mar 26, 2010 at 2:27 PM
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Syracuse was a #1 seed and Butler #5. Syracuse didn’t sputter in the second half. Their best stretch in the whole game was in the second half. Watch the games before commenting on them, please.
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- ButlerBulldog - Mar 26, 2010 at 2:42 PM
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GO BUTLER!
Btw, Syracuse was a No. 1 seed, and Butler a No. 5…FACT CHECK
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- Terry Cornelius - Mar 26, 2010 at 2:44 PM
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is this guy Steve Bartman’s secret lovechild?
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- AL - Mar 26, 2010 at 2:49 PM
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It doesn’t matter if Syracuse was a #1 or #2. Either way they still lost and their best stretch in the 2nd half wasn’t good enough. Should have stretched better.
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- Drifter - Mar 26, 2010 at 3:07 PM
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You must be kidding me, 51-1 / in a Rats Ass !With all the up sets this year, I would be amazed if the little Cub boy hit 10 before a loss.
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- el_stupidio - Mar 26, 2010 at 4:36 PM
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He’s talking about #2 & #6 in the country not their bracket seedings. I hope bracket boy continues to be right, my bracket depends on it.
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- Rick Chandler - Mar 26, 2010 at 4:51 PM
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I have Butler going to the Final Four. I claim immunity.
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- Rick Chandler - Mar 26, 2010 at 4:57 PM
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Anyone who saw the end of that game and doesn’t say Syracuse folded like small-town newspaper is delusional. Boeheim should be selling shoes.
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- ken chicago - Mar 26, 2010 at 5:10 PM
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Well, he’s about 1000000 times smarter about basketball than any of ESPN’s analysts. And probably 1000000000 smarter than the rest of sports writers in the US. I always wonder why they pay the jerks to make predictions that are wrong. Sports writers and news journalists have a great job. The more they get wrong, the better. No wonder most people think both groups are morons!
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- Dischmount - Mar 26, 2010 at 5:12 PM
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I find at least two things disappoining about this “balloon boy” story. 1. There are many autistic people who truly have extraordinary talents. Let’s hear about them, not this phony situation (I suspect Alex had nothing to do with this; his brother and maybe parents cooked it up, looking for money from some media outlet to tell their story). 2. Nobody is 51-1, but there are some people who have, legitimately, missed only a few games. Unfortunately they are not challenged in any way, so no one seems to care who they are. But I for one would be curious to know something about the real people who have done very well to date in their brackets. It would be interesting if any of them is a bracket guesser, as opposed to a student of the game.
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- Jon - Mar 26, 2010 at 5:25 PM
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Syracuse was #4, and Butler was #19 in the country El-Stupido. Where are you getting your facts?
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- BigAl - Mar 26, 2010 at 5:55 PM
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For Dischmount;
You are a complete dope and should be selling shoes with Boeheim. In the case you never filled out one of these brackets, they have to be filled out before the first game is played. So, according to your logic the parents and brother must be geniuses to be able to fill the bracket out before the deadline and get 51 out of 52 correct.
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- Dischmount - Mar 26, 2010 at 6:19 PM
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Hey Big Al. It looks like you have not been reading the stories about this whole business. The key point is that with the particular bracket Alex filled out it was possible for Alex or his brother or his parents to change the bracket AFTER the tournament started. Of course they deny having done so, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t. In fact there is quite a bit of detail now available about just how such changes could have been made with this particular bracket. So just because you couldn’t make any changes in your bracket once the tournament began doesn’t mean Alex and his family could not. By the way I agree with you about Boeheim. He looked completely out of it as Syracuse went down the tubes. But I wanted Butler to win, so I am not going to complain. Let the Cuse fans do that.
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- Rolo Tomassi - Mar 26, 2010 at 6:42 PM
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Rather than selling shoes, Boeheim’s better suited for using his clipboard for inventory of toner at Office Depot (“23 boxes of cyan … check!”) … Some of us despise Sorrycuse for the questionable individuals which, year in and year out, populate the roster. How fitting then that a kid who shoots 18% from 3-range (Nored) and another shaky perimeter guy (whose 3 bounced all over the backboard/rafters/concession stand) would deliver the 3-ball daggers to Jimmy B. BTW: Only 48 FGA for the Orange; 7 off.rebs … what a unit …
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