As the saying goes, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.
That’s the case for 14-year-old Otto Schellhammer, who miraculously has the only perfect March Madness bracket alive across both the men’s and women’s tournaments.
The eighth-grader from the Pittsburgh suburbs has nailed all 48 picks in the women’s bracket entering Friday’s four Sweet 16 contests.
He’s reportedly the only person to do so among more than 41 million people across seven major contests, as tracked by the NCAA, according to the Associated Press.
“I know people say this a lot about March Madness,” Schellhammer told the AP, “but it was 100% luck. I know basically nothing about any type of basketball.”
He added: “I play with my friends, but I don’t really watch it.”
It’s one thing to win your friendly pool — this writer went down with No. 1 seed Florida in the men’s pool — and it’s another to somehow get 48 straight games correct.
While not every game is a 50-50 proposition, the odds of calling 48 straight coin flips correctly are roughly one in 281 trillion.
The NCAA digital branch’s senior director of content, Mike Benzie, told the AP that it tracked roughly 36 million men’s and 5.2 million women’s brackets across the seven major contests.
Though the women’s bracket is often more chalk than the men’s, Schellhammer’s bold call of No. 10 seed Virginia to the Sweet 16 paid off, along with No. 6 seed Notre Dame advancing to second weekend.
There reportedly had been 235 perfect brackets entering the second day of the Round of 32 on Monday before the Cavaliers’ and Fighting Irish’s upset wins.
“The first game I watched of March Madness was on Monday,” Schellhammer told the AP. “I came home and I was like, ‘I’ll check and see how my women’s bracket is doing.’ Then I watched Virginia beat Iowa, and that was pretty cool. And then I watched Notre Dame.”
While his run is incredible, it’s still short of ESPN’s record of 57 straight correct picks in the women’s field, according to the AP.
That would require a perfect 8-0 mark in the Sweet 16, plus correctly prognosticating the first two Elite Eight games Sunday.
“I think it’s absolutely hilarious,” his mother, Amy, told the outlet. “It’s just so fun to see. It’s exciting. I’m excited he’s into women’s basketball now. He’s been watching and it’s making him more excited about it.”
If Schellhammer is going to reach 63-0, though, he’s going to need some more long-shot picks to hit.
The odds of achieving a 63-0 bracket are about one in approximately 9.22 quintillion.
He has No. 3 seed TCU downing No. 1 seed South Carolina in the Elite Eight and Texas ending heavy tournament favorite and undefeated UConn’s perfect season in the title game.
He has some regrets about those picks, but there’s nothing he can do at this point.
“TCU and South Carolina is definitely one I would probably go back, and not to knock Texas but I’d probably re-pick the championship, because UConn is a powerhouse,” he said. “You never know. If there’s ever going to be an upset it’s going to be in March Madness.”
