We’re still waiting for the madness. Without upsets, the brackets are in good shape.

The madness is missing so far this March.

Through the first weekend of the NCAA tournament the upsets have been missing. It’s been all chalk with just one double-digit seed in Oregon left standing as we head to the Sweet 16.

Sure, we almost lost Duke. If only Aubrey Dawkins’ tip at the buzzer had somehow found its way in the basket, we would have seen the upset of upsets with a University of Central Florida win over the Blue Devils.

It made for some nervous moments for our longtime Duke fans in our 2019 Marci Stenberg Bracket Challenge.

Golden Valley athletic director Matt Thissen texted he was speechless after Duke survived the 77-76 win on Sunday.

Former Atwater coach Jason Boesch could only communicate with emojis.

While the first weekend of the tournament lacked a lot of the fantastic finishes, buzzer beaters and upsets, it did set up a lot of great matchups this week.

North Carolina and Auburn should be a game played at warp speed. Both teams love to push the ball up the floor and let the shots fly. The shot clock operator can take the night off for this game.

Michigan State and LSU should be a physical battle inside. Purdue and Tennessee is an intriguing matchup.

With all of the favorites still standing, it means most brackets are still in great shape. We did have one person in Sun-Star reporter Vikaas Shanker who got a bit ambitious in picking UC Irvine to reach the Final Four.

Out of the 23 brackets submitted, only three of them don’t have their entire Final Four still alive.

Golden Valley assistant Jerry Stillahn is threatened to win this poll in back-to-back years. Stillahn only missed five picks in the first round and then picked 14 of the Sweet 16 correctly. Stillahn leads Delhi’s Brian de la Porte by two points. De la Porte picked 15 of the Sweet 16 teams correctly. Eleven of the 23 participants in the poll picked at least 13 of the Sweet 16.

On the other side of the standings is Sac-Joaquin Section assistant commissioner Will DeBoard, who is in dead last. DeBoard’s biggest mistake was picking Kansas State to make the Final Four. The Wildcats were upset in the first round by UC Irvine.

“I wasn’t a big believer in Virginia and I tried to find someone in that region to make a run,” DeBoard said. “(Kansas State) was who I picked to make the run.”

This isn’t the first time DeBoard has found his bracket at the bottom of the standings early in the tournament.

“I’ve made a good comeback before,” DeBoard said. “I like to think of my bracket as a late closer.”

As expected, Duke was the overwhelming favorite to win it all by our local experts. The Blue Devils were picked by 12 participants. Virginia and North Carolina were each picked four times. Gonzaga, Michigan State and Michigan were each picked once.

We’ll see if Stillahn can hold off the pack the rest of the way.

This story was originally published March 26, 2019 at 2:55 PM with the headline "We’re still waiting for the madness. Without upsets, the brackets are in good shape.."