It’s time for some Madness…

The brackets are out! The brackets are out! That means one thing – lots of pools, predictions and people who know nothing about college basketball choosing random schools based on familiarity (Duke), the coolness of their name (Gonzaga), or their pretty uniforms (UNC).

I for one love choosing teams for the tournament… even though I don’t follow college basketball really throughout the season. But it’s easy right? The high seeds usually go farther for the most part, pick a couple upsets for the first few rounds and pick one Cinderella to get to the Sweet 16. Then keep it simple, stupid. Top seeds, top seeds. I mean that’s just one way of doing it. Let’s look at a few more…

The Crazy Fan Approach
Your team’s going all the way, no matter what. It’s like the kid at Binghamton picking them to go all the way, even with a first round matchup with Duke. Or the diehard Dukey picking them all the way every year just to have them lose early each time, even though they have a good squad.
The flaw to this way of picking teams – just because you love a team doesn’t mean they will go all the way. You need to throw allegiances aside when betting. I know this from being a Bills fan.

The Girl Approach
Famed throughout all the land, the girl approach to picking tournament winners is based on things that obviously only women can appreciate – attractiveness of players on certain teams, colors of uniforms or cuteness of mascots. Usually favors UNC’s baby blue uniforms, or any furry animal mascot. (***note –mascots should never be taken lightly.
The flaw to this way of picking teams – although there are various flaws to this system, like the fact that the criteria picks are based on have absolutely nothing to do with quality of basketball teams, this method is a tried and true approach and works a lot of the time. Much to the dismay of men and sports fans everywhere.

The Statistics Approach
Those who favor this approach don’t like luck. They like good, hard facts. So they won’t base their picks on anything but statistics. For instance, if a number 12 seed scores 77 points per game, usually beats opponents by more than 7 points, and has a coach that has been to the tournament at least once before, they are more likely to upset a team in the first round. So on and so forth.
The flaw to this way of picking teams - this may give you the best percentage chance of winning, but the Tournament is CRAZY and anything can happen. And you don’t get the same rush of being right when you just based all your picks on numbers…

Top Seeds, all the way to the Final Four
There are other teams that aren’t the highest seeds? Who cares… There’s a reason these teams are ranked at the top – they are better than everyone else. And there’s no way Chattanooga has a chance against UCONN. I’ll stick with the big guns, thanks.
The flaw with this system of picking teams – it’s March Madness Baby! Anything can happen, and nothing’s better than a nice Cinderella story…

Random Tandem

There is no rhyme or reason to how you pick teams, it’s all about what you feel in your bones. You’re a gambler by nature and you love the rush of writing down upsets and putting all sorts of money down on your bracket. You have an addictive personality and gamble far too much for the amount of disposable income you earn. You are me.
The flaw to this way of picking teams: you spend too much money and usually lose… but when you win – IT’S AWESOME BABY!

Good luck with your brackets, and enjoy watching some of the best basketball you’ll see all year (these college teams actually play defense! – take note, NBA)