For someone who doesn't usually pay attention to college basketball, I tend to do fairly well in NCAA March Madness pools. I don't get bogged down in the details, like I do with other sports, and pick almost completely on gut instincts. Usually there are two or three games in each region that smell like upsets to me, so I pick those, and pick the favorites in all the other games. It's like my strategy for NFL football pools. I determined that there are about four upsets each week on average, so I just chose my four upsets each week, and ended up ahead for the year. This was small stakes, so "ahead" was more a matter of pride than losing the $3-5 lunch money each week.
Last year, I ended up in the top 10% of the ESPN bracketology picks, based on a few hunches. My alma mater, Bradley, was in the tournament as a 13 seed, and I picked them all the way to the sweet 16, which they miraculously made. And as luck would have it, the regional finals were here in Oakland, so I was able to watch Bradley lose to Memphis in the round of sixteen. I also made a few more off the wall picks that payed off. One of these years, I should go to Reno or Tahoe and put my money down on my hunches, but it seems wrong to use my powers for financial gain.
Anyway, here are my picks for the 2007 tournament. Feel free to lay your own money down.
1st Round Upsets: GWU over Vanderbilt, Long Beach over Tennessee, Gonzaga over Indiana, Winthorp over Notre Dame, VCU over Duke, Creighton over Nevada (go MVC!)
Final Four: Wisconsin, Kansas, Ohio State, North Carolina
Finals: Kansas, North Carolina
Winner: North Carolina
Last year, I ended up in the top 10% of the ESPN bracketology picks, based on a few hunches. My alma mater, Bradley, was in the tournament as a 13 seed, and I picked them all the way to the sweet 16, which they miraculously made. And as luck would have it, the regional finals were here in Oakland, so I was able to watch Bradley lose to Memphis in the round of sixteen. I also made a few more off the wall picks that payed off. One of these years, I should go to Reno or Tahoe and put my money down on my hunches, but it seems wrong to use my powers for financial gain.
Anyway, here are my picks for the 2007 tournament. Feel free to lay your own money down.
1st Round Upsets: GWU over Vanderbilt, Long Beach over Tennessee, Gonzaga over Indiana, Winthorp over Notre Dame, VCU over Duke, Creighton over Nevada (go MVC!)
Final Four: Wisconsin, Kansas, Ohio State, North Carolina
Finals: Kansas, North Carolina
Winner: North Carolina
1 comment:
You better be right, Steve! My standing in the office pool is depending on it!
uzqkkn! uzqkkn!
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