NCAA Tournament: Picking Your Bracket

Note: this is from Dave.

I have never won a bracket pool. 

Often, I'm out after the first weekend.  But that doesn't mean my strategy isn't sound.  In fact, when applying how I pick a bracket to my picks, the strategy usually works, it just pops up in the wrong games. 

So, here's how I pick my bracket...

Right after the jump...

Two Upsets A Day... On Thursday and Friday, I figure there's going to be two.  One in the afternoon session and one in the night session.  Look for teams that shoot the three well.  Look for lower seeds that are playing a team that's scuffling coming into the tournament.  Or a team that's buying into their own press (ie Syracuse, usually).  

Be Wary of the Big East Tournament Champion... We here at On the Banks--and the other BE blogs--know how difficult the conference tournament is.  It's a war, and it wears teams down.  Especially this year, when UConn did the impossible:  win 5 games in 5 days.  So watch out Kemba Walker, you could be in trouble on the first weekend.

All four number 1s won't make the Final Four...Come on, you know one of them is going to be upset in the Sweet Sixteen.  It's inevitable.  Look for a team that either relies on one or two players.  Look for a team that doesn't have much depth.  Or, look for a team where a player is coming back off an injury just for the tournament and could disrupt chemistry (Is Kyrie Irving going to come back?).

A team that's been cold will suddenly get hot.... The urge here is to take a long look at Villanova (assuming they get in.).  Villanova has been struggling (and that's putting it lightly).  I'm probably going to pick them to lose in the first or second round, depending on match-ups, but they're a team that hit's the three.  If they heat up and get some confidence, they could do damage.  Depends on Corey Stokes toe.

Don't Believe in Jimmer, Believe in San Diego State....Team beats the individual nearly every time.

So, good luck when you fill out the ballots.  March Madness is finally here.

Ever wish that more things worked like college brackets? That you could seed everything that way? Top 64 pre-game foods. Top 64 college players. Well, now you can do just that with your friends, with the Allstate BFF Brackets, which takes your 64 top Facebook friends (an algorithm seeds them based on interaction) and seeds them in four regions, exactly like the real tourney. Once the tourney starts, your friends advance with the corresponding seeds – till one is left standing. Check it out at http://apps.facebook.com/bffbrackets