Bracketology

It's March Madness!  Bracket time!

I have a long and storied history of participating enthusiastically but unsuccessfully in various pools for the NCAA basketball tournament.  Readers who know me well may find this surprising, given that very little of my sports knowledge relates to basketball - really, very little.

But brackets, pools and general sports-related excitement are right up my alley, and they feed well into the Miles and Laurel theme of making the everyday more special and fun.  The whole nation, basketball fans and otherwise, latches onto this cultural phenomenon known as March Madness, and the "otherwise" group is what really interests me.  For true, passionate basketball fans, it's a no-brainer - after all, it's the championship tournament.  But so many people - people who haven't watched a single NCAA basketball game this season or ever - go nuts for it!

By the nature of upsets, Cinderella stories and whatever happens when millions of people make more than five dozen choices per bracket, kooky things are bound to happen.

Per yesterday's funny Wall Street Journal article:

There is only one certainty to filling out a March Madness bracket, and it is this: You will lose to someone who has never watched an NCAA basketball game in his or her life. You will also lose to a 7-year-old, a golden retriever and a lobster.

My bracket rationale might make any genuine NCAA basketball fan go bonkers, but there's no need to fret because I never get anywhere with it. There's always that glorious first weekend where I think maybe this is the year that my motley, weird mix of picks are all going to snowball together and I will be in the newspapers as a 28-year-old woman in St. Paul somehow picked every game correctly.  And obviously soon enough it turns out that picking so-and-so because its mascot is cute wasn't the best course of action, and by the time the tournament is done, my bracket is way at the bottom of any pool.

But this is a new year, and today, the brackets are in play.  If you care, you already submitted your own brackets, so fortunately for my marginal but technically real chances, you won't be able to implement my own little secrets for your own bracket until next year.

This is a pretty dramatic moment.  I've never documented my strategy in written form before.  Ready?  Here it is: my guide to mediocre bracket performance, in a simple four-question format.

1) Do you have friends that attend large universities?

My friend Ellie would be surprised that she plays a quite significant role in my picks because of her educational trajectory - this year, Harvard and Texas are going far!  

2) Can you pick an underdog?

Every year, there is a school that pops up in the tournament that is completely unfamiliar to me.  One year (last year?) it was Wofford. This leads to an annual conversation and subsequent Google search for Josh and me that yields some educational tidbits about that institution.  It's also tradition for me to pick that school to go way too far in the tournament.  The Wofford Terriers retain a soft spot in my heart to this day whenever I see that school referenced (which happens more once it gets on one's radar).

This year?  No question: St. Bonaventure, which I recently learned is in southwestern New York (like, almost Pennsylvania).  Their mascot is the Bonnies and I think they're going to do well.

3) Do you have places you've visited or places you'd like to visit?

This one drives most of my choices. I love Colorado, so Colorado and Colorado State are going to fare well in my bracket.  I've been to Connecticut for work, so I think they're definitely going to beat Iowa State.  I'd like to visit Asheville, so I think UNC-Asheville may just upset Syracuse.  Of course, I visited Vermont last year for the first time and loved it.

Go Catamounts!

Similarly, I'd like to visit New Mexico soon and have thus favored New Mexico and New Mexico State.

4) To which mascots do you gravitate?

This one's another no-brainer.  Each tournament is chock full of entertaining mascots.  This year I have my eye on Mr. Cat (Davidson), obviously the Catamounts of Vermont, Bevo of Texas and Big Al.  Big Al (an elephant) is off-limits during football season (Alabama, an SEC foe), but I give myself the go-ahead to support his Bama team during the tournament.

Reader!  Who are your picks for this tournament - and more importantly, why?