Will March Madness Turn Into March Sadness?

For the most part college basketball is only relevant to the masses once a year and that is of course during the NCAA Tournament.  Even then only a relatively small percentage of the population pays attention to what is known as “March Madness.” Of course much of the interest is connected to the many pools that are run by offices, groups of friends and family and the like.  There is usually a financial component and an entry fee of anywhere from $5 to $500 and even larger.

The most popular pools involve filling out bracket sheets and those who think they know what they’re doing usually have the highest-ranked teams advancing far into the tournament.  Meanwhile you have others who know nothing and will make their picks based on school nickname, colors and the like.

By the time you read this 16 teams will have already been eliminated after Thursday’s first round and another 16 will get sent home today as the field of 64 gets cut in half. There will be upsets and the key to winning your bracket pool will be picking one or two of them while not losing any of your Final Four teams early.

The smart play is to have regional top seeds Duke, Arizona, Michigan and defending champion Florida advance far into the tournament but I have never been accused of being smart. I don’t have any of them in my final four but am picking the #2 seeds in all four regions to advance…UConn, Houston, Purdue and Iowa State.  I would be shocked if at the end of the tournament you said, “that Kevin Williams really knows his stuff.”

By the way when your pool is won by somebody who does not know the difference between a three-point shot and a foul shot you’ll understand why it’s called “March Madness.”