How do YOU choose your teams?
Lucy:
1. Once the ranking system is explained to you, accept it as gospel. Become annoyed if anyone, especially your parents, suggests a different strategy.
2. Go with the team that has some kind of cat for a mascot. Especially if that team is a one seed (see rule #1). But not if that team is the Vermont Catamounts.
Carrie:
1. Do the opposite of whatever you did last year.
2. Think long and hard before picking against Kentucky. They sold their soul to the devil a long time ago.
3. Never believe the hype about Stanford. They will not be your ride to success.
Jerry:
1. Look at what the experts say (those guys are sooo smart!) and do the opposite.
2. Ignore the overall records. A win against Davis doesn't mean anything.
3. Each game decision is final, even if it is close. If you change it you'll regret it even more when you get it wrong... which you will.
3. Always bet against teams with too many white players (Duke I'm looking at you). I don't call it racism, I call it "looking for teams with that NBA quality."
4. Middle America always deserves to lose to the coasts. Anytime Middle America wins it is an accident or bad officiating.
Claire:
1. Don't pay any attention to basketball until Selection Sunday.
2. Read every online article you can find in 3 days predicting the games' outcomes.
3. Use a very complex, yet totally unscientific, system to weigh the different experts' opinions, and mix it with your gut feelings.
4. Choose the opposite of any predictions given by any writer who uses the phrase "wreck havoc."
5. Carefully weigh how well you think Duke will do, with how badly you want them to fail.
6. Pick a couple more upsets than you're comfortable with in the first round, to make it just a little bit more exciting for you.
Beth:
1. what sport are we playing?
and
2. go usa!
Vivian:
1. Choose every 5:12 upset
2. Every Utah team goes down in the first round (this trumps rule #1).
3. Hold serious grudges against teams who let you down in a big way in previous years. (Pitt, Gonzaga)
4. Never change your mind.
Ted:
Other things I have learned to build my brackets:
1. Err on the side of the upsets, especially when the lower seeded team is from a small conference that never gets on ESPN. The lack of media coverage usually means they are much better than seeded.
2. While there might be plenty of room for Cats in the S16 and F4, there is only room for one Bulldog. (But Georgetown--you should be representing those dogs, not Butler.)
3. If you hate a team, go with your gut and bounce them early. (I knew I should have picked Notre Dame to be upset.) Even if you are wrong, at least you will have good motivation to root against them in the later rounds.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeletewe have a "blog administrator? cool!
ReplyDeleteyeah, that's me. or you. I thought those comments were 'main post' worthy. Jerry- I have found myself using your tactics as dogma. "But the coasts deserve to win over middle america!"
ReplyDeleteAnd I have the same battle as Claire over Duke every year.
Beth, did I hear you say on the phone that you picked New Mexico to win because you thought "lobo" meant "crazy"?
So, as an unofficial entrant into the Ashby family brackets. I also started the tradition in our family, though instead of a mix CD as the reward, we have dessert on the line. (Some might say that we have a fetish when it comes to food.)
ReplyDeleteI have to say that Lucy's Cat rule is probably the most practical advice I have ever heard about March Madness. And it seems to be proving itself this year.
Other things I have learned to build my brackets:
1. Err on the side of the upsets, especially when the lower seeded team is from a small conference that never gets on ESPN. The lack of media coverage usually means they are much better than seeded.
2. While there might be plenty of room for Cats in the S16 and F4, there is only room for one Bulldog. (But Georgetown--you should be representing those dogs, not Butler.)
3. If you hate a team, go with your gut and bounce them early. (I knew I should have picked Notre Dame to be upset.) Even if you are wrong, at least you will have good motivation to root against them in the later rounds.
Go USA, Beth? I thought it was "go world".
ReplyDeleteAnd like normal my picks are already looking silly and we're not even done with day 3 yet.
I need to adopt Viv's #3. But what if I put a 5 year ban on those teams? Nova is on my naughty list. So you should all go ahead and choose them next year, because I won't and they'll probably win then.
I also am adopting Viv's #3. And Kansas, boy are you on that list.
ReplyDeleteI have a lot of these same rules like:
ReplyDelete1. Stanford always loses in the second round.
2. Hold grudges.
3. Pick every 8/9 upset
4. Ask Lillian on the 5/12s and then do the opposite of what she says.
5. Pay zero attention to college basketball until Selection Sunday and even then, don't read anything.
6. When it's close, pick colleges that you're not sure where they are (Murray?), or colleges where you know someone who is currently attending (Georgia Tech).
I broke my own rules #4 and 5 this year, I heard on NPR that Cornell had a 7' center, and so I changed my bracket to have them win.
Amanda, you forgot the most important rule.
ReplyDeleteAmanda's rule- fill out the bracket quickly using everything you know about college football.
Nice pick with Butler by the way. I had no idea where that univ was, I guess that should have been my clue.