ESPN will tell you that college bowl season is the most wonderful time of the year. I beg to differ. For tons of sports fans, it is March Madness and it begins in earnest today. Sure, there have been "first round" games dubbed the "First Four" the past two days (congrats JMU, nice try Liberty!), but the real stuff begins today with 16 "second round" games. The fun kicks off in just a few minutes with the first game, Michigan State vs. Valparaiso (12:15 p.m. tip).
There is nothing quite like it. In a matter of a couple days, America is engulfed in bracket craziness as everyone enters pools or fills out one (or multiple) just for fun. There isn't much that seems to unite our country anymore, but March Madness is one of them.
You'll have people analyzing the games for hours, trying to find the statistics that give certain teams the edge. Others will rely on their gut, while a different group will pick teams based on colors or mascots (those people always win). Upsets are carefully chosen. The art of deciding which double-digit seeds can pull upsets is difficult. In a pool with lots of brackets entered, it is essential to pick some upsets to help your bracket stand out. Lots of people will be picking favorites and a couple upsets here and there, your quest is to find just the right ones. Locating these upsets can be difficult. There are always trendy upset picks (like Belmont over Arizona today) but then there are always upsets people weren't expecting either. If the regular season was any indication, we should be in for a whale of a tournament. There were tons of upsets. Top-five teams fell on the road to unranked teams at a breakneck pace (Virginia over Duke was one of them). The No. 1 spot in the rankings was a revolving door and seemed to change daily -- even though new rankings come out weekly, a No. 1 team that loses early in the week doesn't really feel like No. 1 anymore.
As Bart Scott said, "Can't wait!"
So, hopefully your brackets are in. Tip off is in mere minutes. Madness is about to break out. Enjoy!
(One of) My Final Four: Louisville, Ohio State, Kansas, Miami
Championship: Louisville over Kansas, 67-65
There is nothing quite like it. In a matter of a couple days, America is engulfed in bracket craziness as everyone enters pools or fills out one (or multiple) just for fun. There isn't much that seems to unite our country anymore, but March Madness is one of them.
You'll have people analyzing the games for hours, trying to find the statistics that give certain teams the edge. Others will rely on their gut, while a different group will pick teams based on colors or mascots (those people always win). Upsets are carefully chosen. The art of deciding which double-digit seeds can pull upsets is difficult. In a pool with lots of brackets entered, it is essential to pick some upsets to help your bracket stand out. Lots of people will be picking favorites and a couple upsets here and there, your quest is to find just the right ones. Locating these upsets can be difficult. There are always trendy upset picks (like Belmont over Arizona today) but then there are always upsets people weren't expecting either. If the regular season was any indication, we should be in for a whale of a tournament. There were tons of upsets. Top-five teams fell on the road to unranked teams at a breakneck pace (Virginia over Duke was one of them). The No. 1 spot in the rankings was a revolving door and seemed to change daily -- even though new rankings come out weekly, a No. 1 team that loses early in the week doesn't really feel like No. 1 anymore.
As Bart Scott said, "Can't wait!"
So, hopefully your brackets are in. Tip off is in mere minutes. Madness is about to break out. Enjoy!
(One of) My Final Four: Louisville, Ohio State, Kansas, Miami
Championship: Louisville over Kansas, 67-65
Comments
Post a Comment