Leeds United March Madness continues: Lucas Radebe's Elite Eight

It's Monday after an off-weekend for Leeds United, and we're happy to say we still have a tournament of some sort to talk about (with Leeds, you never really know what'll happen). From 64 Leeds United icons, greats, managers, and current players competing in our inaugural Leeds United March Madness bracket, we're down to just 8 entries remaining. The Elite Eight, if you will. That means only TWO entries left in each of our categories, so these votes decide some pretty big honors here at Through It All Together. Let's get to the brackets...

The Players bracket ends up with the matchup we predicted at the start, a Charlie Taylor vs. Lewis Cook showdown. 14-seed Liam Bridcutt and 13-seed Gaetano Berardi made some noise moving to the Sweet 16, but they couldn't topple the heavyweight "Hopes for the Future" in the end. Will we see Cook ride his wondergoal against Fulham to Players bracket glory? Or will Taylor continue his Premier-League-caliber season and be crowned the Players bracket champion? We'll see on Thursday.

Just like the Players bracket, the top two seeds move on to the finale, as coach Billy and Gary McAllister never really stood a chance. Revie and Wilkinson have long been the top names in the Leeds United Manager pool, and their showdown was destined from the start. Will Wilkinson win this battle of big name, title winning coaches? Or will Revie solidify his standing as the Managerial face of LUFC? Should be a good one.

Now we move to the other side of the bracket, where the one and two seeds again meet in the final matchup. Wait... NO. WHAT HAPPENED HERE? Lucas Radebe, the hero of the 90's, is alive in March Madness! He topped Norman Hunter, Eddie Gray, and now Peter Lorimer to get here, but the South African that turned down offers at clubs all over Europe to stay at Leeds has made the Elite Eight. Bravo for the Radebe lovers out there, you earned this one. Now, will you throw all sense to the wind and put him above the beloved Billy? Universally seen as the best LUFC player of all time? Bremner was the easy 1-seed in the Greats bracket... can he hold on against Cinderella Lucas? Or can Radebe top the Leeds Greats bracket and earn a fan-fueled spot in the Final Four?? Stay tuned.

And less surprisingly, the icons bracket gave us no surprises, with Elland Road and Billy's Statue moving to the finale. The Old Peacock and Don's Statue couldn't hold off the obvious choice top seeds, so we now get to see which entry our readers think is "Leeds United's most iconic" icon: the stadium itself or the famous statue in front of it.

So that's the breakdown of the Elite Eight. So what happens now? We vote again! 32 First Round polls have narrowed to 16 in the Second Round, 16 narrowed to 8, and now we have only 4 polls this week. We'll keep these polls open through Wednesday night. Thursday, we'll have the results for the winners of each bracket, the Final Four in this, the inaugural LUMM Tournament.

Thanks for participating, and be sure to share with your friends on social media so the true Leeds champion can have his one shining moment.

Remaining:

2 Current Leeds United Players

2 Leeds United Managers

2 Leeds United Greats

and 2 Leeds United Icons

Tournament details: we have polls for each of the 32 First Round matchups, and the voting will run through Sunday night. Vote for your favorite in each matchup, and the loser is eliminated from the competition. Then, on Monday, we'll post the 32 winners and the polls for the 16 following matchups. Next Thursday, we'll post those 16 winners (the Sweet 16), and run 8 polls through Sunday night. On the following Monday, we'll post the 8 winners (the Elite Eight) and run 4 polls through Wednesday night. Then finally, on Thursday the 31st, we'll have our LUMM Final Four, winners for each of the four categories (Favorite Player, Favorite Manager, Favorite Great, and Favorite Icon), and a chance to crown the ultimate Leeds United March Madness winner for 2016.

(Thanks to Vertex42 for the amazing customizable spreadsheet there. Click the photo above to enlarge it and see the updated bracket.)

And here are your Elite Eight polls. Enjoy the slow week, get excited for the upcoming real-life actual game against Rotherham, and thanks for following along with us in this tournament during a slow international break. GO VOTE. GET IN. #MOT.

THE PLAYERS FINAL

THE MANAGER FINAL

THE GREATS FINAL

THE ICONS FINAL

Can't believe we've made it to the finals in each of these brackets. Thanks again everyone for following along and voting so many times, and tune in Thursday to see who made the Final Four!