The resemblance is uncanny. Guy on the left is basically the bracketologist with a mustache and beard. 1
Next, we compare groups of people singing/chanting in harmony. First, you have Christmas Carolers. Of course, you may end up shutting the door on these youngsters but you cannot deny the work and dedication they put in in preparing for the big day. A true grind. On the other hand, you have crazy drunken fans/students/alumni screaming as the opposing team dribbles up the court. These fanatics prepare for the big day in a few different ways; pre-game rituals, pre-game alcohol consumption, and on occasion face-paint round out the most popular pre-cheer activities. Essentially, one group gets together to sing peacefully in order to please neighbors. The other bans together to make noise in order to throw their opponents of rhythm. Close enough.
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| Long Beach State fans cheering their guts out. I incorrectly picked "The Beach" as a 12 seed to upset New Mexico last year. Heartbreaking stuff. By the way, Old Lady twins are underrated. They're hilarious. |
Now to a few more obvious comparisons... The "25 days of Christmas" is approximately the length of time from the championship games of conference tourny week to the Final Four. Gifts received on Christmas Day equate to the gift of the one vs 16 seed matchup on the bracket. This is always a gimme pick as 16 seeds are a gentlemen's2 0-100 (0.00 winning percentage) against one seeds all-time. And finally, shocking events transpiring at your office Christmas party or at your family's celebration = upsets/bracket busters. Maybe your boss drinks a little too much eggnog and makes a scene. Or your usually reserved, taciturn Great Aunt embarrasses herself doing karaoke or showcasing her rendition of "the dougie" on the dance floor.3 Getting back to the hardwood, I'm sure everyone remembers 11 seed George Mason (coached by current UMiami coach Jim Larranaga) improbably making the Final Four in 2006. Beating perennial powerhouses Michigan State, UNC and UCONN in the process, the Patriots made history. It's Cinderella Stories like these that make the tourny so special. And it's the tourny which makes March such a special time of the year.
Ok I will concede that nothing Michael Scott does can be shocking. The man is a walking enigma. Here's a classic clip: I declare bankruptcy!
I will now give you readers some keen advice. Before I present my list of do's and dont's, I just want to make one point clear. You can not fill out more than one Men's Bracket. Such a rookie maneuver. Honestly this should be a class C misdemeanor. Am I saying that you cannot enter multiple league pools? Absolutely not. Feel free to join as many pools as you please. What I mean is that no man of true integrity should be picking #4 Wisconsin in one bracket but #13 Belmont in another (assuming they were playing each other). It would increase your chances of one bracket absolutely crushin' the competition but it is such a weak move. When you're watching the games, you need to be rooting for one team and one team only in each contest. Multiple rooting interests make the experience so much less fun. To compensate for this lack of bracket diversity, try picking a multitude of different women's brackets. I tried this for the first time last year and it truly enriched my March Madness experience. Scrollin' through your ESPN NCAAW brackets to see if you have any perfect sweet 16 scenarios alive is awesome when you don't actually watch the games/have a real rooting interest.
10 Tips for Winning your Pool
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| This lady is the key to a Baylor repeat. My interest in women's college basketball has grown a robust 2.7 % since I started randomly picking women's brackets. |
10 Tips for Winning your Pool
1) Pick two 5 Seeds and two 12 Seeds to advance out of the first round.4
-Since the tourny was expanded to a field of 64, only 66.7 % of 5 seeds have defeated 12 seeds in the first round. That means you're picking at least one 12, maybe even two, in your bracket.
-Since the tourny was expanded to a field of 64, only 66.7 % of 5 seeds have defeated 12 seeds in the first round. That means you're picking at least one 12, maybe even two, in your bracket.
2) Please, do not blindly pick All Chalk.
-Yes, the one seeds are all favored to win their respective regions but it is so boring and un-sexy to pick this way. People who fill out brackets with one's across the board in the final four are usually newbies anyway. Students of the game know their history; only once have all one's made the final four (2008).
-Yes, the one seeds are all favored to win their respective regions but it is so boring and un-sexy to pick this way. People who fill out brackets with one's across the board in the final four are usually newbies anyway. Students of the game know their history; only once have all one's made the final four (2008).
3) Do not pick your current school/alma mater to advance too far, or to be booted out too early.
-resident Dukie and RedCupSports blogger Arjan Saraon will have a tough time figuring out how far his Blue Devils will go. There's two schools of thought here: One is to pick your team to go far so you can root for them whole-heartedly through each round. The other is to predict an early exit for your squad a.k.a the "reverse jinx" effect. The lesson: think with your head not with your heart, folks.
4) Pick a unique champion.
-Don't follow the pack. Fill out your own bracket. Don't copy the experts picks. Last year's tournament disproves this theory, however, as #1 overall seed Kentucky defeated Kansas in the championship game. I was left holding the bag as my pick, Mizzou, lost in the first round to 15 seed Norfolk State. Bad memories. Still, it's more fun to have your own champion and the odds are higher that you will win your pool if you pick a less popular champion.
5) Research helps.
-One of my buddies (Dan Dougherty-Samowitz) claims that picking March Madness games is "all luck." He believes that with more college basketball knowledge, comes a decrease in bracket predicting performance. In my opinion, this inverse correlation is nonsense. Study up, ladies and gents. Keep it simple, though. Figuring out which teams are high tempo offenses and which utilize low pace sets are good tendencies to study. Trying to pick using the theory of transitivity (if team A beat team B and team B beat team C, team A WILL beat team C), is a terrible way to select winners. There's too much parody in college basketball (especially this season) for that research method/strategy to be effective.
6) Bank on the Badgers.
-Wisco is the quintessential 4 seed (has been a 4 seed for three straight years- shoutout to Brett Fishbin, a Badger fanatic/freshman). This year, however, they're looking more like a 5, maybe even a 6 but could improve their seeding with a strong Big 10 Tournament. Anyway, my point on the Badgers is that they are rock-solid. They've made the sweet 16 3 out of the past 5 tourneys and they haven't lost their first round tilt in the past 6 seasons. With their slow-pace, methodical offense and staunch defense, the Badgers are always a tough out. Not looking so tough right here though (Wisco players rock out to Ke$ha).
7) Go all in on a Cinderella.
-Always gotta take a double-digit seed to the sweet 16 (maybe even further this year). To win your bracket, you're going to need to roll the dice with a few risky picks.
8) Don't focus on seeds too much
-This may be the best tid-bit I've got. If you're unsure who to take in an 8-9 matchup, or a 7-10 matchup, go with your gut. Do not think about the seeds too much. Since the field expanded to 64, 9 seeds have won the majority of matchups vs 8 seeds (53 %) and 10 seeds have won a respectable 40 % of their matchups against 7 seeds. Furthermore, don't be scared to take 11's, 12's in the first round. Throwing in one 13 seed and one 14 seed could be smart, too. I would advise against picking a 15 or 16 seed, however. (Well, maybe we should wait till the brackets are unveiled...)
9) Ride a few conference tourny champs
-Go with the hot hand. It may be cliché but it's true. Momentum is real. 5 Last year's evidence reveals that only 2/6 conference champs listed made the Sweet 16 (it should be noted that 6 conferences is not a big enough sample size to base predictions on). It should not be overlooked, though, that Louisville (winning the toughest tournament out there) made the Final Four and Colorado won as an 11 seed (over a team that did not win their conference tourny). Watch and study the conference tournaments to get a good sense of how teams are gelling. You need chemistry coming into mid-March.
10) Never pick against Murray State. Ever.
-The racers stole my heart in 2010 when they beat Vanderbilt as a 13 seed. Ever since, I've made sure to pick the boys from Murray, KY. They usually make me look smart.
As the legendary Dickie V says, "It's awesome, baby, with a capital A!"
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1 Lunardi teaches a class on bracketology at St. Joseph's University, his alma mater (also Jameer Nelson's alma mater). I'm considering transferring there solely to take this class. The final exam is to create a realistic mock bracket. Sign me up!
2 This is why I use "gentlemen's" as an adjective so often in writing and in speech. Also, please watch every episode of Scrubs in order if you have not done so. Thank me later.
3This also probably results from an excess of eggnog
4In 2009, three 12 seeds advanced to the round of 32 (Zona/Wisco/Western Kentucky). Arizona even advanced to the sweet 16 (I correctly predicted this).
5Here is a list of last year's conference tournament winners (of the Big 6 Conferences) complete with how far they went in the Big Dance.
Big East- Louisville- As a 4 seed, they lost in the Final Four to eventual champion Kentucky.
Pac 12- Colorado- Beat 6 seed UNLV as an 11 seed then lost to 3 seed Baylor's athletic squad led by Perry Jones III. Baylor sported some dynamite light-green jersey's and made it rain with various dunks/alley-oops. Fun game to watch
Big 12- Missouri (now in SEC) - As you know, they lost their first game. Still pissed.
Big 10- Michigan State- Lost in Sweet 16 to Louisville.
SEC- Vanderbilt- Beat Harvard, then lost to Wisconsin. Read tip #6 for more info on Wisco.
ACC- Florida State- Beat THE BONNIES, then lost to Cincinnati.
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