A Non-College Basketball Fan’s Approach to Filling Out the Bracket
By Blake Lovell
This is a guest post from Andrew Barraclough of the FanSided Charlotte Bobcats site, RobertoGato.com.
I don’t watch college basketball. But you don’t have to be a college basketball fan to fill out a bracket.
I do a blog for FanSided called RobertoGato.com. My life is work, family, and NBA basketball. I think about the Bobcats more than I think about the latest girl I’ve contacted in online dating world. I’m not completely out of it. I live in the Triangle or as people outside of North Carolina call it, the dead center of Tobacco Road. If you turn on the local news between November and April, you see Duke, Carolina, the Red Team along with Wake Forest, hell, the Walmart I go to is in Wake Forest (the University moved like 50 years ago)…
People talk about it pretty much constantly up here. I was at a gas station and one guy waiting on another pumping was hollering out his window “Hey, them boys made it damn close didn’t it?!” They continued to discuss the Carolina game for as long as it took to fill up the gentleman’s F-150’s tank. I have a vague sense of the ACC and where those “local” teams fit in the grand scheme.
Also, as an NBA fan, I have to at least know the big names coming out of college every year right? Well, kinda sorta. Last year the Bobcats didn’t have a pick so College Ball and I took a year off. They are going to have 3 picks this year so we’re back on, at least for the tournament. If I’m going to watch the games, I need to have a dog in each fight…..what better way than to fill out a bracket?
So, for the background, or umm, lack there of, that I have, don’t you think it would be interesting for me to walk you though how I made my picks? I’m thinking, maybe this is sort of a look between a college basketball geek and then the dumb girl who fills out the brackets based on team colors and where their friend went. Hate to say it, this year, I’m closer to the dumb girl.
Either way, here goes:
First, I know, I hope everyone knows, there are 4 “play in” games this year, so I picked those based on schools I’ve heard of. The two 16 vs 16’s don’t matter, they won’t make or break you, but the 11 on 11 and 12 on 12, you have to look at that matchup just in case. So, Clemson is from ACC, so they move past UAB. USC beats VCU, just because they’re from better/bigger conferences.
Next, again, everyone should know this, no #16 has beaten a #1 seed ever, never ever. So you go ahead and move the #1’s on past their counterparts. After that, you have to figure, since #2’s are like #1’s except they lost later and might be from weaker conferences. So, in my mind, all #2’s move on.
For the #3 seeds, I look at all 4 and pick the one I think has the worst match-up to lose. If I haven’t heard of any of the #14’s, all the #3’s move on. So this year, Purdue vs St. Peter’s, umm, I have a personal rule, no school that has “Saint” or a directional state school moves on, unless they’ve been really hot or have a superstar or both. Sorry St. Pete’s. Syracuse vs Indiana State, unless Larry Bird suits up, ‘Cuse wins, plus a great coach…. Moving right along, UConn vs Bucknell. My dad took night classes at Bucknell and UConn has that kid Kemba Walker. Star beats place that offers 2 year degrees every time. Finally, BYU vs Wofford, I know people that have gone to both, including a cousin and 2 aunts who went to BYU, BYU wins. I mean, Jerry Richardson went to Wofford, he’s proven to be a little evil lately so stick it BigCat (I’m also BigCat, hoping to replace him).
#4’s against #13’s go much the same way as #3’s and #14’s so: Kentucky vs. Princeton, Kentucky just won their conference tournament and they have a good coach, sorry nerds, you’re out. Louisville vs Morehead State for the all-time irony first round match-up (Pitino, you dog!), Pitino wins in more ways than one! I’m also taking Texas to beat Oakland and Wisconsin to beat Belmont because Belmont used to play in the same conference as my alma mater, Gardner-Webb and I hold grudges. No upsets yet, which is basically the way it goes historically.
Fives and twelves, interesting. I think, since Clemson had that play in game, they definitely lose to West Virginia. I’m gonna pick Kansas State over Utah State and then I’m going with Vandy to beat Richmond, but that’ll be close. Richmond plays Duke every year I think, so they have tough games early, anyway, could be wrong. I am going to go ahead and call my first upset, Memphis to beat Arizona. I realize Arizona has a guy some people are projecting going #1 overall and Memphis has a 2nd year coach or something but I feel like they have a good shot to win here.
From then on, it’s a crap shoot. I just go by gut feeling. I’ll take Marquette to beat Xavier because Danny Pudi from Community went to Marquette and I still feel the sting of the Bobcats losing Derrick Brown so I’ll take it out on Xavier. Georgetown to beat USC because USC had that play in game. I’ll take Cincy to beat Mizzou because I saw something that said Missouri had some ridiculously low RPI. I am going to break my own “Saint” rule because St. John’s is good, with a good, hungry coach in Lavin who got a lot of attention at UCLA, went to ESPN for a few years and now needs to legitimize himself.
Upset in the #7/#10’s with Michigan State beating UCLA, again, coaching. Washington will beat Georgia because I hadn’t heard Georgia mentioned all year. Texas A&M will beat Florida State, just to confirm the ACC isn’t that good this year. Temple will beat Penn State because Bill Cosby likes Temple or went there or something. Finally, the 8/9s will go as they’re ranked. I saw someone said George Mason is better than their “Cinderella” run a few years ago, so they’ll beat Villanova. UNLV has a big documentary on HBO right now, so they’ll beat Illinois. Michigan, same deal, plus I don’t trust Bruce Pearl. Then I’ll take Butler to beat Old Dominion, just because I like them Bulldogs.
So there’s your first round. For round #2, I’m going chalk with the #1’s over all the #8’s. For the #2s, Carolina moves on, Notre Dame moves on and San Diego State does as well. But I think that Florida gets bounced by Michigan State, I just sense it. Also, I hate Joakim Noah and think Billy Donovan is a bit skeevie. That’s just me. UConn wins, Purdue wins and Syracuse wins. I’m gonna take St. John’s to win as well because I think BYU is deeply effected by the loss of the fornicator/starting center. Plus, if Jimmer can’t do it on his own, maybe he falls to the Bobcats in the draft.
Kentucky will beat West Virginia, Louisville will beat Vandy, Texas will beat Memphis and Wisconsin will beat Kansas State. It’ll be a tremendous first weekend and I’ll get everything right, right?
I’ve got the 1-4 in 3 regions and then there’s the Southeast with St. Johns and Michigan State and the #1 and #4 Pittsburgh and Wisconsin. So, I’ll go with Duke over Texas and Connecticut to beat San Diego State, because SDSU has lived off a home court advantage as far as I know. We’ll go ahead and complete that bracket with Duke beating Connecticut to move onto the Final Four.
The East, with Syracuse playing Carolina in Newark and Ohio State playing Kentucky….yikes. I don’t know, so I’m going to guess. Straight up guess. Ohio State and Carolina face off and Ohio State wins, just because I couldn’t take another Carolina/Duke match-up this year.
Southwest region playing out in San Antonio, doesn’t give anyone a home court. I think it goes Purdue beating Notre Dame, I like that Hansbrough kid. I like him because he’s been in ol Big Brother TyTy’s shadow and he’s not as dumb lookin’ but I don’t think Notre Dame has the chops, they definitely don’t have the pedigree. Then I figure Kansas will keep rolling past Colonel Sanders and Louisville. Then Purdue beats Kansas because, well we need an upset in the Elite 8.
I don’t know why, but I expect Michigan State to wear that slipper and be that double digit seed in the Final Four. That’s the pattern I think. So we’ll put them down for a win against St. John’s and then against Pitt who beat Wisconsin.
That makes a final four of Duke, Ohio State, Michigan State and Purdue. One side are #1s and the other is a #3 versus a #10. Now, I feel like Duke sort of keeps up what I remember of the prior champion making the Championship game. I think Coach K out duels Thad Motta. Ohio State will put up a good fight but Duke’s experience will help them immensely in a big, big game. I think I’ve ridden Michigan State as far as I can and they end up losing to Purdue. Purdue got smoked by the Spartans, so it’ll be revenge by a team that has been better for most of the year.
Final Game: Duke/Purdue. ACC/BigTen challenge all over again. The Big Ten won that this year and Ohio State, who the Boilermakers finished second to in the conference, traded the #1 overall ranking most of the year with Duke. I don’t know how that’ll go down. I don’t know much about Purdue, so….Duke, national champion in a low scoring game 63-59.
That’s how it’ll go down.
I’ll enter that bracket in like 3 pools, pay my $5-$10 and hope for the best. Other than just knowing some of the players as “good or bad” and the coaches as traditionally good, there is no analysis above. I liked Duke growing up, one of my best friends went there. I just based all this crap on gut feelings, family and friend connections and my slight knowledge of NCAA tournament history!
Plus, worst thing you can do when making predictions: I mostly went off what I want to happen! What was I thinking?! Get me an eraser!