A day ahead of the start of the first round of 2018 NCAA Tournament, Pacers forward Glenn Robinson III and Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb filled out their brackets on Wednesday afternoon at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
Chris Denari, the television voice of the Pacers on FOX Sports Indiana, emceed the event as they revealed their picks live on Facebook and on Pacers.com.
Robinson predicted lots of upsets, including top seeds Virginia and Villanova falling in the second round and a surprise Sweet 16 run by St. Bonaventure. Robinson also had all four two seeds going down in the second round, including Purdue falling to Butler (Butler head coach LaVall Jordan was an assistant coach at Michigan when Robinson starred for the Wolverines).
Holcomb's bracket was more "chalk," with most of the favorites (including Purdue) advancing to the Sweet 16, though he did pick 14th-seeded Stephen F. Austin to make a run to the second weekend.
Many of Robinson's later picks will make his teammates happy. He had Texas (where Myles Turner and Cory Joseph played) and Xavier (the former school of Edmond Sumner) reaching the Elite 8 and Kentucky (Alex Poythress' alma mater) reaching the Final Four along with Michigan, Butler, and Kansas.
Holcomb picked Purdue to reach the Final Four along with one seeds Virginia, Xavier, and Kansas.
Both Robinson and the Governor made unsurprising choices about who will cut down the nets next month in San Antonio. Robinson picked Michigan (who he helped reach the national title game in 2013) to beat Butler, 80-77. Holcomb, meanwhile, went with state school Purdue knocking off Virginia, 84-81.
For all of their picks, you can view both of their complete brackets below or rewatch the full event in the video player above.
Glenn Robinson III's Bracket
Governor Eric Holcomb's Bracket
