March 19, 2008
March Madness Tips

Tomorrow begins the magical time of the year known as March Madness. Everyone including that executive assistant who doesn’t know her Gonzagas from her Dukes is filling out brackets for the office pool.
To help everyone fill out their brackets, here are some helpful hints.
1. No Final Fours since the tournament was expanded to 64 teams have featured all #1 seeds. That means if you have North Carolina, Kansas, Memphis and UCLA as the last four teams standing, you are wrong. While there’s always a chance for it happening, it definitely will not happen this year. The four #1 seeds all have flaws that can be exposed during the tournament. For instance North Carolina doesn’t play a lick of defense, and Memphis can’t shoot a free throw to save their lives.
2. No 16 seeds have ever beat a 1 seed. It just won’t happen. The disparity of a 1 seed and a 16 seed is just too much to overcome.
3. The more you use logic, the less likely you will win. I can give thousands of reasons why all 1 seeds will be in the Final Four, but as said above it just won’t happen. I had many reasons in 2006 why 11-seed George Mason would go out in the first round, but they ended up in the Final Four. That’s why that executive assistant will win the office pool.
There are many more suggestions I could lay down here, but that will involve doing a lot of homework. Like how guard play is very crucial to winning in the tournament. If you want to look at assists-turnover ratio of every guard in the field of 64, be my guest. But as I stated in #3, you will most likely be wrong.
That being said here’s my bracket for all to laugh at.
My notable upsets for this weekend: #12 George Mason over #5 Notre Dame; #11 St. Joes over #6 Oklahoma; #12 Villanova over #5 Clemson; #10 Davidson over #7 Gonzaga; #10 Arizona over #7 West Virginia; #10 St. Marys over #7 Miami (FL).
My Final Four are Louisville, Georgetown, Stanford and UCLA with UCLA winning it all. But more on that later.
Good luck on your brackets!
AP Photo by Kevork Djansezian



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Do you really think a team can lose only 2 games an entire season in one of the toughest conferences and not "play a lick of defense?" I'm not saying it's their strong suit but North Carolina plays defense. You'll see.
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I agree about North Carolina's suspect defense. It won't really matter though since they got a favorable draw with their only real competition coming in the Elite 8 when they play Louisville. Luckily for the Heels, the game is being played in Charlotte which will swing the game in their favor. The only major upsets I have is S. Alabama over Tennessee in Birmingham round 2. My first round "bracket busters" are Siena, Davidson, Western Kentucky, Saint Mary's, and Arizona. I hate how I have 3 #1's in the Final Four (UNC, UCLA, and Kansas), but I think UCLA and Kansas are the most balanced teams in the field. If there's a team that's primed for an upset it's UCLA with EVERYONE and their "EXPERT" mom picking them to win it (even Bill Simmons gave them the proverbial kiss of death), but I cannot and will NOT bet against my team.
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Perhaps you should both read this: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=3284352, written by someone who likely knows much more about basketball than you.