The University of Connecticut’s dominant March Madness run catapulted Bain Capital’s Steve Pagliuca to the top of Bloomberg’s charity challenge for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
(Bloomberg) — The University of Connecticut’s dominant March Madness run catapulted Bain Capital’s Steve Pagliuca to the top of Bloomberg’s charity challenge for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
Pgaliuca, also co-owner of the NBA’s Boston Celtics, was one of two contestants to correctly tab the Huskies to cut down the nets, joining York Capital Management’s Jamie Dinan, who finished second. Former Russell Investments Chief Executive Officer Michelle Seitz, who picked UConn to lose in the national title game, finished third in Bloomberg’s Brackets for a Cause.
UConn, which won its fifth national championship in the past 24 years, was a four-seed that downed San Diego State with a 76-59 blowout in Monday’s final. The Huskies won each of their six NCAA games by an average of 20 points.
“I was just lucky,” Pagliuca said Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “I’m very grateful to Bloomberg and to the basketball gods that helped me this year.”
Each of the more than 50 participants in this year’s contest made a $20,000 pledge to raise money with the top three finishers in each challenge getting a portion donated to their charity of choice. This year is the first time the women’s bracket is a part of the fundraiser, which began in 2015. The competition raised more than $1 million this year.
On the women’s challenge, Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson and Carlyle’s new CEO Harvey Schwartz tied for first while there was a three-way tie for third that included Silverbox Capital’s Joe Reece, Ospraie Management’s Dwight Anderson and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert. Louisiana State University topped the University of Iowa, 102-85, on Sunday for its first women’s hoops national title.
In a sign of the madness, no contestant correctly picked the LSU Tigers to win it all. However, Johnson’s Final Four selections of University of South Carolina, Iowa, LSU and Virginia Tech University were perfect.
Pagliuca was playing for Reform Alliance, which helps get people out of prison and into jobs. Schwartz competed for One Mind, an organization focused on transforming the approach to mental health and wellness. For Johnson, who won the men’s challenge in 2021, her portion will go to Catalyst, a global nonprofit that helps build workplaces with women in mind.
“Selecting Catalyst was also an opportunity to celebrate Women’s History Month, which coincides with March Madness, so I was delighted with how it turned out,” Johnson said in an email. “Anyone who has ever filled out a bracket knows that it takes a little bit of research, a few flip-of-a-coin decisions and a lot of luck.”
The most-adored picks in both tournaments were South Carolina and The University of Alabama. The Gamecocks lost in the Final Four to the runner-up Iowa Hawkeyes, while Alabama was bounced in the Sweet Sixteen to the second-place Aztecs.
–With assistance from Michael Boyle.
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