My Bracket

Today marks day 1 on the greatest sporting event of the entire year. The NCAA basketball tournament in my opinion is the most exciting, captivating, and dramatic event in sports to watch, especially the opening weekend. The first two rounds are awesome. The drama is truly unreal and I love every second of it. One thing that makes the tournament even more dramatic is predicting who will win. We all fill out our brackets with our friends and coworkers, throw in $5, and hope for the best. Usually after the first weekend, our brackets are blown up and we don't really have any hope of winning the money. But I have been somewhat successful in my brackets. While I have not been immune to getting my bracket smashed by the perennial Cinderella, I do think I have found a method of doing fairly well. Listed below are my thoughts on how to do a little better in your pool.

6. Pick Favorites: Obvious right? When people fill out their brackets, the first thing they look for is that great upset pick that they think they only know. But in reality, the favorites are there for a reason and when Marge from accounting wins this years pool and you wonder why a woman that doesn't know the difference between Stephen F. Austin and Stone Cold Steve Austin won, it's because she simply picked the favorites.

5. Guards: If you want to a little more research, learn which teams have the best guards. Historically, in the NCAA tournament, guard play has determined the outcome of many games. If you take a look back a couple of years when Illinois went to the championship game, they had a three guard lineup that completely mesmerized opponents. This is just one example of how guards completely own the tournament.

4. Seniors Rule: Historically, teams with upper class men tend to do better than teams that don't. Maturity, both physical and mental, has a major role in this. Experience is also a key factor. So if you are insistent on finding that one team that might be this year's Cinderella, look for a senior filled team and pick them. They will probably do fairly well.

3. Vegas Knows: Las Vegas is not in the business of gambling to lose money. So pay attention to the lines Vegas gives out on the games. THEY KNOW MORE THAN YOU ABOUT THIS! I can't emphasis that enough. This year, the sexy pick is VCU over UCLA. Everyone seems to think this upset is going to happen. But when you look at the line Vegas is giving, UCLA is a clear favorite. Another example is the USC vs. Boston College game. BC is the higher seed but Vegas has USC favored. You might want to pay attention to that.

2. Know the sites: The first couple of rounds of the tournament are located in specific regions. Teams get seeded accordingly and sent to regions that are generally close to them. Louisville is a number 1 seed and is playing in Dayton Ohio, fairly close proximity to Louisville. It's close enough to where enough fans will make the trip and probably make it a virtual home game for the Cards. Similarly, North Carolina plays in Greensboro, N.C. Enough said there. If a team is playing close to home, it will be more comfortable for them and they will have more fans there. That's always a bonus.

1. Guess!: You know that IT nerd that did well last year but he has absolutely no idea why. It's because he reverted to the previously discussed number 6, and he guessed. We can never predict the crazy upsets. When George Mason went to the final 4 a couple of years ago, you would think it would be impossible to predict that. But, some people did because they either liked the name, liked their colors, like the mascot, whatever. But some people did and it was complete guess because any logical person picking the games would not have picked them as a 12 seed to go to the final 4. But it happened and some people picked it. Good luck and have fun, I know I will.