NCAA PERFECT BRACKET WATCH: Part Three: Day Two (FINISHED)

And now we get to the brass tacks of it.  Can this be only about the fourth year that someone -- ANYONE -- survives Day Two and gets a perfect first round?  We start with just over 750.

• Game 17 11:30 AM PDT:  A 7/10 coin-toss gets us down to 388 ESPN brackets.  And #3 Xavier is in some trouble, heading to the final TV timeout!  About 20% of the remaining brackets went with #14 Kennesaw State.
• Yahoo is down to ten.  The ten brackets have eight different national champions.  Only Michigan State and Alabama have two votes each.
• A Blogspot "Project Perfect Bracket" couldn't survive Day One.  After a zillion predictive algorithms, they got Princeton, but thought Oral Roberts would beat Duke yesterday.  (And other misses as well, that was just the first easily identifiable one.)
• Game 18 Noon PDT:  And Gene Steratore's trying to cover up for some refball that just saved Xavier.  Down one inside ten seconds, and that definitely looked like a hack to cause the Kennesaw player to lose possession of an offensive rebound.
• 315 ESPN brackets can thank that referee.
• Game 21 2:15 PDT:  Three more games.  Yahoo is now down to just four perfect brackets.  People representing themselves as named Andrew, Jessica, Fred, and Pete are the last four to survive 21 games.
• In Game 22, Iowa State-Pittsburgh, Andrew and Pete have Iowa State.  They are 10 behind at the second TV timeout of the second half of Pittsburgh, Jessica, and Fred.  However that game ends, though, there will be only two Yahoo brackets perfect after that.
• ESPN has 157 left at this point.  95 picked Iowa State, 62 Pittsburgh.
• As of Game 20, NCAA.com reports 205 perfect brackets.  At least 24 of them fell in Game 21, the difference in the ESPN number.
• 2:37 PM PDT:  Games 22 and 23 will end about the same time.  Pittsburgh up 14 on Iowa State 6 minutes to go.  Creighton six up on NC State about the same time to go.  If both of those results hold, we have our official final Yahoo survivor in 23 games.  Jessica picked NC State, Fred picked Creighton. 
• They also split on the 4/13 Game 24 - 4 seed Connecticut with Fred, 13 seed Iona with Jessica -- And Iona is up 2 at the half.
• With Andrew and Pete joining Jessica in picking Iowa State, it appears the final Yahoo perfect will be "Fred's Quality Bracket" at Game 23 (It looks like Creighton's game will finish first, even with the blowout in the other game).  And now the run is his alone:  He needs Connecticut to finish the second section.
• Creighton's win would leave 91 perfect ESPN brackets, but it's about half and half in the other game.
• 2:58 PM PDT Game 22 (PITT-IAST):  Nope, I had it right before.  Pitt won first.  That will leave 62 perfect ESPN brackets.  If evenly distributed, that number will probably be about 40 after Creighton-NC State.
• 3 PM PDT Game 23:  It's now official.  Fred is the last Yahoo survivor with the Creighton win.  Checking on the ESPN number before I head on an errand.
• 3:40 PM PDT:  As Game 24 wraps up, the NCAA is noting the total number between the four major online games is now at 30 (as of the end of Game 23).  24 (soon to be 22 -- Iona fell apart in the second half) on ESPN, 3 on the NCAA's game, 2 on CBS, and Fred on Yahoo (who we already know will join the other 22 to go on to Session Four).
• Fred's evening slate, in order of tipoff:  Purdue, Kentucky, Drake (a 12/5 upset), Gonzaga, Memphis in the 8/9, Kansas State, Indiana and TCU.
• 4:45 PM PDT:  As Session Four kicks off, we have our first (probable -- NCAA.com is not updating who is perfect in their game or the CBS game, and you have to log in to see all that!) complete wipeout scenario.  If Fairleigh Dickinson becomes the second 16 to off a #1 (Purdue), that fells all 22 remaining ESPN brackets and Fred.
• And Fairleigh Dickinson leads by a point at halftime!!!  My rule is, call me at the 8-minute timeout of the second half!   
• If Purdue wins, then the Kentucky/Providence game (Game 26) will get us down to either 8 or 14 teams.  Only three of the 22 remaining brackets joined Fred in picking Drake to beat Miami.
• 5:15 PM PDT:  THE DISRESPECT!  A caption of the impending 1/16 upset spells the 16 seed "Fairley Dickinson" on ESPN!
• 5:30 PM PDT:  We've made it to the 8-minute timeout.  Fairleigh Dickinson has not only been spelled correctly on the ESPN caption now, it has sustained a Purdue run and is up two at the timeout.
• 5:42 PM PDT:  Here we go!!! 4 minute timeout and Fairleigh Dickinson is up a point!  Could a second team into history provide the complete wipeout in Game 25 this year???
• 5:55 PM PDT:  Up three inside a minute, and they have the ball!!!!!
• 6:05:  Last chance for Purdue, down three with the shot clock out!
• 6:07 PM PDT:  BOOM!!! HISTORY AND WIPEOUT!!!  Fairleigh Dickinson University becomes the second #16 seed in history to defeat a #1 seed with a 63-58 win over Purdue!
• That wipes out all the remaining ESPN and Yahoo brackets at Game 25 in a 23-way tie.  Now we see if any other remaining perfect brackets somehow got this one!
• 6:20 PM PDT:  After Game 23, there were 2 CBS and 3 NCAA.com perfect brackets.  Checking with the NCAA.com blog to see if they are posting the post-mortem as we speak -- and probably replacing the Princeton game-end video with the Fairleigh Dickinson one!
• 6:23 PM PDT:  THE END FOR 2023!  It's official -- NCAA.com has posted the post-mortem, and Gregg Nigl's place in the Hall of Fame remains secure.  (They actually, in a link calling back to his 49-win streak in 2019, have a mock-up of Nigl as if he were in Cooperstown!)  Three other brackets remained, all busted with the 16 win.

The pursuit of perfection ends, failed, on Game 25, a 26-way tie.