Princeton University has plenty of high-powered alumni across Wall Street paid to make money from surprising situations. Even they didn’t see the Tigers advancing as far as they have in March Madness.
(Bloomberg) — Princeton University has plenty of high-powered alumni across Wall Street paid to make money from surprising situations. Even they didn’t see the Tigers advancing as far as they have in March Madness.
The Ivy League school’s men’s basketball team has defied the odds to make it to Sweet 16 in the NCAA’s basketball tournament, and will take on No. 6 Creighton University on Friday night in Louisville, Kentucky.
None of the finance and business titans playing in Bloomberg’s Brackets for a Cause challenge picked Princeton to make it this far — they didn’t even have the Tigers winning the first round. The current leader, TPG Chief Executive Officer Jon Winkelried, is a New Jersey native.
Within the wider world almost no one predicted it: Only 1.86% of brackets on CBS and 1.3% of those on Yahoo had the team getting this far.
In fairness, it is the first time Princeton has made it to the Sweet 16 since 1967.
Politicians haven’t fared much better. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy did pick Princeton to win its first game, but no further. Princeton graduate Michelle Obama, the former first lady, didn’t release a bracket, but her husband’s had the Tigers knocked out immediately.
No. 15 Princeton is the only double-digit ranked team remaining in the tournament. If the Tigers win, it will be their first Elite Eight appearance since 1965. The winner of Friday night’s game will face either overall No. 1 seed Alabama or San Diego State on March 26 in that round.
Tipoff is scheduled for 9 p.m. New York time. The Creighton Bluejays are favored by 10 points in the latest odds from Caesars Sportsbook, while the line for total points scored is 140.5.
Princeton’s Cinderella run notwithstanding, there are no perfect brackets left in CBS’s bracket challenge, or among the 20,056,273 competing in ESPN’s.
Princeton’s women’s basketball team was knocked out of the NCAA tournament in the second round.
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