How to fill out an NCAA Bracket (for entertainment purposes)

Hey everybody. This post is about how you should fill out your NCAA Men’s Basketball bracket. However, there are one or two things that I want to hit on not related to that topic so this is a mini-Random Observations.

Music of choice: The Sun Goes Down by Thin Lizzy







Tremendous song by one of the most underrated rock groups of all –time and since we’re winding down St. Patrick’s Day, I needed to put an Irish group on here that isn’t U2. No beef against those guys but good Irish music has been coming out for a long time besides U2.

This song is haunting and Phil Lynott, the lead singer and bassist, looks so tired and beat up but that’s what makes this song so honest.

Crush of the Day for the Ladies: Colin Farrell



I have some female readers of the Blog and I aim to provide for my readers so this is for them or you if you’re a lady and reading this, or a gay guy, whatever.

Crush of the Day: Heather Graham

I tried to find someone of true Irish descent but we’ll settle for Heather because she’s cute and had an excellent character arch on Scrubs as Dr. Clock, so props to her.

OK, on to the bracket. I’m not officially filling one out because I’m not allowed to because of my job. I can’t enter a pool for gifts or even if there aren’t any gifts. I do a bracket on my own to see how I would do and keep it to myself. Therefore, I’m not going to tell you who I have winning the whole tournament or making my Final Four, etc.

However, that doesn’t stop me from helping some of you out when you’re filling out your bracket. I usually do OK with these. I get at least two Final Four teams a year and have even picked a winner or two. I didn’t have Kansas last year, but I had UNC, Memphis and UCLA in the Final Four.

Here are some tips when you’re doing your business.

Here are some tips when you’re doing your business.

1) Never ever base your picks on the “experts.” I’m not going to call anyone out in particular but don’t pick a team based on what you saw an analyst said on TV or what you read on a sports Web site. Everyone has their own opinion and you should as well. That’s why I don’t look at one prediction from someone else before I personally fill out my own. Only until then will I look at other people’s picks.

2) Don’t do the whole “everyone is picking team A to beat team B so I’m going to pick team B.”

3) Don’t use any of the following criteria to pick one team over another:

a. Who has the best looking players and/or coach
b. Who has the better looking uniforms
c. Which team is in the city I’ve had more fun in.
d. Who has more players from a certain area, race, age, you get the idea.

4) This is business, Pt. 1. Don’t pick your favorite team if they stink. If you’re an alum or fan of for example West Virginia, don’t pick those guys to go to the Final Four because you wish they will. For an even more realistic example, say you’re a fan of Cleveland State. You’re hyped and excited that you beat Butler to make it to the NCAAs. You want your team to win several games and make a run, so you put them in the Sweet 16 to be cute. Well, slappy, when your boys get stomped by Wake Forest and the Demon Deacons possibly make a run to the Final Four, those are valuable points that you’re losing. So don’t be cute, Stephen F. Austin or American fan. Pick your team to lose, this is business.

a. Don’t pick against a conference. Look, I’m the first to tell you that when I refer to Big 10 (11) basketball, I always call it crappy Big 10 (11) basketball, just like crappy ACC football. Those are my emotional opinions. However, if I think that Purdue is going to make a run, you bet I have no hesitation to pick them to win some games. I don’t like the style of play and I don’t think that any of the teams are good honestly, but if say Michigan State has an easy road to the Elite Eight, take that pick.
b. Don’t pick against coaches. If I saw Bruce Pearl , John Calipari and Krzezewski (in that order) hurt in the middle of the road, I probably wouldn’t stop to help them. However, you or I shouldn’t let our dislike for a coach get in the way of seeing that their team can make a run. I can’t stand Memphis for so many reasons that I won’t get into them here. But long story short, I don’t like their style of play, don’t like their players, don’t like their coach, don’t like how they play in a crappy conference and pad stats, don’t like how they won’t face Vandy in men’s basketball, don’t like their city of residence, etc. Other than that, they’re ok. However, in my bracket, I have them making the Elite 8.

5) This is business, pt. 2. Don’t pick against your rival team or any team you dislike. I can’t stand Tennessee, Duke, Memphis, ETSU and some others in that order. If I think that Tennessee is going to win the national championship, I’m marking it down on my bracket even though I dislike them with a passion. This is about picking winners, no emotion

a. Don’t pick for your conference. I went to an SEC school, love the conference, all of that stuff. There was some crappy basketball played in it this year. Don’t pick LSU to make the Elite 8 because you want to see the conference do well. Pick them because you truly think that they have the ability to make it that far.

b. Don’t pick for a coach. Even if you feel some special connection with a coach, you went to a lecture he was doing and you had a chat, he’s the same religion as you, he coached one of your kids or neighbor’s kids in a camp, you get where I’m going with this. Along those lines, don’t go for the sentiment pick. Don’t pick the old guy or the minority guy or anything like that because you feel some emotional connection.

6) Mascots matter. If you’re torn on a pick, look at the mascots. Here are some potential teams who can make a difference because of their mascot, good and bad.

a. Beware of birds. Birds are traditionally weak unless its something like an Eagle. So Louisville, beware of them. However, some Jayhawks won a title last season, so this theory may be questionable.
b. Land predators are always good. So Wildcats, Tigers, Bears, Jaguars, Rams, Wolves and all of the variations of them, lean towards them. Some to stay away from included Turtles
c. Human mascots should be proceeded with caution. I’m looking at the Utes, Mountaineers, Cowboys, Hilltoppers and some others are worrisome, especially the Native American ones. The only exceptions are…
d. Devils, even the contradictory ones. Perfect example is Wake Forest. Now the mascot is a Deacon, so he’s spreading the Word, and yes that’s Word with a capital “W.” However, he’s a Demon Deacon so is he spreading the bad Word or the good Word or are you a Satanic worshiper and consider the Demon Deacon’s word to be good while a Christian may consider it bad.
e. If your mascot is a vehicle, its curtains for you.

7) Look at the last 10 games the team played in a positive and negative way. If they’ve been playing well, that’s good but even if they’ve been struggling, they’re still hope. This was a sloppy way to segway into my next point.

8) Don’t take too much stock into conference tournaments. Be careful of the following teams that made runs in their conference tournaments that may inflate your belief in how good they are:

a. Louisville for winning the Big East
b. Cleveland State for beating Butler
c. USC for reaching Pac 10 final
d. Mississippi State for winning pedestrian SEC
e. Maryland
f. Oklahoma State for beating Oklahoma
g. Florida State for beating UNC
h. Duke for winning ACC. They do this every year. Win the ACC Tournament, look great, lose in either Sweet 16 or not even make it out of first weekend.
i. Syracuse. They will have no legs after tough week at Big East Tourney.

9) GPAs don’t matter. Some people like to look at GPAs or APR ratings to make their choices. This is basketball people. Not saying that smart kids can’t play and the less smart kids on paper will win every time but this all takes place on the court. Stay away from that thinking.

10) Beware of one man shows. You can’t win the whole thing with only one super player. So beware of these teams:

a. The biggest example of this year is Oklahoma with Griffin
b. Arizona State

11) You have to play some defense. There are some Web pages out there that can give you some stats on this stuff but if your championship pick doesn’t play defense, be worried.

12) Guards rule. It’s a guard’s game this time of year.

13) Location, location, location…doesn’t matter as much as you think. If you’re good, you will be fine. I think that you should look at the time of the games and date of the contest. Example is Mississippi State. They played Sunday afternoon against Tennessee to finish off playing four games in four days. Now they have to travel to Portland, Oregon and face Washington on Thursday. That’s a tough turnaround. Look for things like that. However, this may be the biggest factor of them all…

14) Motivation. You’re dealing with kids 18-22. If they feel slighted or disrespected by their seed, who they’re paired off with to face, media members, fans, opponents, etc. this can be a big motivation for them to stick it to everyone and shock the world. This also goes the other way. Let’s pick a random team like Marquette. Hard core NCAA fans know about Utah St., however, a lot of these kids don’t know about them. Marquette has been facing all of those elite teams in the Big East all year and now you give them an unknown entity from the WAC? This isn’t only for Marquette, I can apply this to several other teams as well.

Those are some guidelines for you to use or not use. Enjoy the games, I know that I will.