It’s March, which can mean many things: St. Patrick’s Day, spring break, maybe a little bit of warmth. But for many Penn students, it means one thing only: March Madness is upon us. While the athletes play the real games, we get to play our own: let us discuss the art, the sport and the science of filling out a March Madness bracket.
First, a little background on the monster that is March Madness. Sixty-four of the over 300 Division I college basketball teams get a bid to the tournament. A team either earns an automatic bid by winning its conference tournament, or receives an at-large bid thanks to a selection committee that decides on Selection Sunday (the first of many double consonants). The teams are split into four geographical regions, and are seeded one through 16 in each region.
Then begins the first round. Sixty-four becomes 32, and after the second round, 32 becomes sixteen, at which point the alliteration kicks into full swing: Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four. So how do you go about filling out a bracket, narrowing it down from 64 to just one?
Easier said than done. First, realize that picking the correct winner of every game is nearly impossible — one wrong pick has a domino effect on at least one other game. So, accept defeat, conquer your Type-A, perfection-seeking personalities and do your research. It’s not all about the rankings. True, the first seed is better than the 16th seed, but what about eighth versus ninth?
Research means style of play, tempo, defense, playmakers. You need to be your own ESPN analyst to decide those games that don’t have an obvious outcome.
But these days, “bracketology” as it is called is just as much based upon choosing which teams will pull off unlikely wins than it is about using the facts and the stats to predict what should happen if the teams were playing on paper.
Simply put, you need to figure out who will be this year’s Cinderella, the underdog who goes from bottom feeder to heavy hitter, the rags-to-riches team that defies the odds, the rankings, and brackets across America. Last year it was Davidson, whose first-round victory over Gonzaga was the program’s first tournament win since 1969. The Wildcats took their Cinderella story all the way to the Elite Eight, where they eventually succumbed to No. 1 Kansas.
All the research in the world couldn’t have helped any bracket whiz predict how far Davidson would go. So while you’re pouring over the stats to fill in the outcome of each game, remember to take a step back. Sometimes, you may just have to go with your gut.
