How to Fill Out A Winning March Madness Bracket
The first day of spring is almost here which means the NCAA Basketball Tournament is about to get started. Time to experience March Madness by filling out your brackets and picking your fantasy players. Even if you haven’t followed college basketball closely up to this point, you have the same chance of winning your NCAA tournament pool as anyone else. The unpredictability of the tournament levels the playing field between casual fans and the college basketball experts.
Here are a few tips on how to create a winning March Madness Bracket.
Plan for unpredictability early: The unpredictability of the first and second round games are what makes the first 4 days of the NCAA tournament so good. Starting with the sweet sixteen and continuing beyond that, the higher seeded teams usually win out.
Don’t look for too many Cinderellas: Picking chalk doesn’t work out but neither does selecting too many long-shot teams. Look for a Cinderella early, but don’t look for them to go too far. No team that was lower than an 8 seed has ever won the tournament and since 1989 the lowest seeded team to win the tournament was a 4-seed Arizona team in 1997. Only 3 teams to reach the Final Four since 1979 have been lower than an 8 seed.
Pick teams that are playing the best basketball going into the tournament: While you need to have a balance between what teams have been good all season and what teams are playing the best basketball right now, you want to go with who is clicking at the right time for the biggest games of the year.
Proceed with caution when picking because of the star player: Players like Kemba Walker, Jimmer Fredette and Jared Sullinger have that ability to carry their teams. In the tournament teams that may not have much depth but have a star player who can get hot and carry his team deep into the March Madness tournament are worthy selections. How far can they take their teams is the question. The best complete teams win. Rarely do those star players carry their team all the way to the NCAA championship. Two recent examples are former number one overall NBA draft picks Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose getting their schools to the Final Four and NCAA championship game, respectively, but not being able to win the NCAA Tournament.
Final Four teams are usually from the big schools, in the big conferences: The Big East stands out for me similar to SEC football in terms of conference difficulty and overall depth of talent. The teams from the Big East have been playing against each other all season and in effect have made each other better. No other conference can compete with their total number of quality teams. Some other power conferences are the ACC, the Big 10 and the Big 12.
Teams with experience have an advantage: Some of the better college players go to the NBA within their first two years, so its rare to see a good team that is lead by juniors and seniors who have been playing together for 3 to 4 years. I feel they have an advantage because experience usually wins out during March Madness.
Have a little luck: It always seems to help the most.
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