The field of 64
March Madness will truly begin later today when the 64 teams are bracketed and everyone runs to fill out the bracket, or 3 or 4 or 5 or 10. For the novices, some pieces of advice.
First, a #12 seed has beaten a #5 seed every year, except 1, since 1989. The key is picking the right one. You might even want to pick 2 of the #12s to improve your chances, and a decent amount of the time that #12 gets into the sweet 16. Just look for a #5 that is not playing well coming into the tournament. A great example is Virginia. If they get a #5 seed I will take whatever #12 they are playing. They lost to Wake Forest to end the regular season and NC State in the ACC tournament. Their second leading scorer, JR Reynolds has been hurt and has shot 3 for 14, 3 for 15 and 3 for 15 the last 3 games.
Second, if you have been doing brackets for years and years you build up a "track record" with certain schools. Some schools are really good to you, and some break your heart year after year. I present two schools here that have cost me big time the last 15-20 years:
Syracuse and Arizona. I guarantee I'm not the only one in that boat. Without fail, these 2 schools fall flat on their face when they are a high seed, but when they are not picked to do much they get to the Final 4 or win the National Championship. In 1991 I had Syracuse in the Final 4. They made history by becoming the first #2 seed to lose to a #15. They didn't even win one game.
So have fun filling out your umpteen brackets and being able to tell all your friends and co-workers you picked the next George Mason this year. Yeah uhuh.
First, a #12 seed has beaten a #5 seed every year, except 1, since 1989. The key is picking the right one. You might even want to pick 2 of the #12s to improve your chances, and a decent amount of the time that #12 gets into the sweet 16. Just look for a #5 that is not playing well coming into the tournament. A great example is Virginia. If they get a #5 seed I will take whatever #12 they are playing. They lost to Wake Forest to end the regular season and NC State in the ACC tournament. Their second leading scorer, JR Reynolds has been hurt and has shot 3 for 14, 3 for 15 and 3 for 15 the last 3 games.
Second, if you have been doing brackets for years and years you build up a "track record" with certain schools. Some schools are really good to you, and some break your heart year after year. I present two schools here that have cost me big time the last 15-20 years:
Syracuse and Arizona. I guarantee I'm not the only one in that boat. Without fail, these 2 schools fall flat on their face when they are a high seed, but when they are not picked to do much they get to the Final 4 or win the National Championship. In 1991 I had Syracuse in the Final 4. They made history by becoming the first #2 seed to lose to a #15. They didn't even win one game.
So have fun filling out your umpteen brackets and being able to tell all your friends and co-workers you picked the next George Mason this year. Yeah uhuh.
posted by Jamie at 9:32 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home