March Madness Jeopardy

Brackets, upsets, blue bloods, Final Four history, hoops terms and the women's tournament, for your bracket pool. Free to copy and played on phone buzzers.

6 categories · 30 clues · Final Jeopardy · everyone buzzes in from their phone

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Bracket Basics

$200
The four teams that reach the national semifinals make up this group.
What is the Final Four?
$400
Seeds in each of the four regions run from No. 1 down to this number.
What is 16?
$600
The bracket is revealed on this day, the Sunday before the tournament starts.
What is Selection Sunday?
$800
The four regional finals are played in this round, named for how many teams are left.
What is the Elite Eight?
$1,000
Ignoring the play-in games, the odds of a coin-flip bracket being perfect are about 1 in 9.2 of these.
What is quintillion?

Upsets and Underdogs

$200
A low seed on an unlikely deep run is nicknamed after this fairy-tale character.
Who is Cinderella?
$400
In 2018, this Maryland school became the first No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1 seed in the men's tournament.
What is UMBC?
$600
In 2023, this New Jersey school became the second No. 16 seed to win, beating Purdue.
What is Fairleigh Dickinson?
$800
This Chicago school reached the 2018 Final Four as an 11 seed, cheered on by its 98-year-old chaplain, Sister Jean.
What is Loyola Chicago?
$1,000
In 1985, this No. 8 seed beat Georgetown for the title, still the lowest seed to win the men's tournament.
What is Villanova?

Blue Bloods

$200
Known as the Wizard of Westwood, this coach won ten national titles at UCLA.
Who is John Wooden?
$400
Mike Krzyzewski won five national titles coaching this school.
What is Duke?
$600
Kentucky's teams go by this nickname.
What are the Wildcats?
$800
Freshman Michael Jordan hit the winning shot for this school in the 1982 final.
What is North Carolina?
$1,000
James Naismith, who invented basketball, was this school's first coach; its title teams include 1988 and 2022.
What is Kansas?

Final Four Lore

$200
The champions traditionally climb a ladder to cut these down.
What are the nets?
$400
This song plays over the highlights montage that closes the tournament broadcast.
What is One Shining Moment?
$600
In the 1979 final, Magic Johnson's team beat Larry Bird's Indiana State; Magic played for this school.
What is Michigan State?
$800
Jim Valvano's team from this school won the 1983 title on a last-second dunk by Lorenzo Charles.
What is NC State?
$1,000
This school won the very first NCAA tournament, in 1939.
What is Oregon?

Hoops Talk

$200
A shot made from beyond the arc is worth this many points.
What is three?
$400
A shot that drops through without touching the rim.
What is a swish?
$600
The extra period played when a game is tied at the end of regulation.
What is overtime?
$800
This name for predicting the tournament field, from last four in to first four out, has its own TV segments.
What is bracketology?
$1,000
An and-one happens when a player is fouled while doing this.
What is scoring a basket?

The Women's Tournament

$200
Geno Auriemma has led this school's women's team to a record number of national titles.
What is UConn?
$400
Pat Summitt won eight national titles coaching this school's Lady Vols.
What is Tennessee?
$600
In 2024, this Iowa guard became Division I basketball's all-time leading scorer.
Who is Caitlin Clark?
$800
In 2021, a player's viral video comparing this training facility with the men's led to reforms.
What is the weight room?
$1,000
The women's tournament was first allowed to use the March Madness name in this year.
What is 2022?

Final Jeopardy — Where the Name Came From

The phrase March Madness was first applied to basketball in 1939, by an official describing the high school tournament in this state.

What is Illinois?

How to run this board

The bracket pool already has everyone talking about the tournament, and this board gives the group something to do between the games. Categories cover how the bracket works, the upsets people still bring up, the blue blood programs, Final Four history, the vocabulary of the game, and the women's tournament.

Nothing on the board depends on this year's field, so it plays the same in any March and nobody's picks go stale. It works well on the office TV during the first Thursday's lunch games, and the Upsets and Underdogs column tends to start the loudest arguments. The Final is about where the phrase March Madness came from, and very few people get it.

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