College Basketball Rankings: "How-To"

For this topic, I will be writing a “How To” blog post.

With the theme of college basketball ranking and most of my posts being about the college basketball NCAA tournament, I figured I would write my “How To” on filling out a NCAA Bracket.

First thing I recommend is to watch as much of the conference championship tournaments during Champ week. Familiarize yourself with as many of the teams as you can. I recommend watching at least the Big 12, Big Ten, ACC, SEC, and Big East tournaments. A lot of the tournament teams will come from these conferences. These tournaments will be finished by the Sunday known as Selection Sunday. Selection Sunday is when the teams are selected to the NCAA tournament. The teams that are selected are then seeded and placed in one of the four regions. After the bracket is set watch the analyst and see what they think about the tournament and take those thoughts into consideration. The analyst have watched hundreds upon hundreds of games.

Now it is time to fill out a bracket. First thing to know is that is a one in 9.2 quintillion chance of filling out a bracket. You will get things wrong but it does not mean you will lose your bracket pool, because everybody will get things wrong. The number one thing to keep in mind is that anything can happen and that is why it is called March Madness.

There are many different things to keep in mind when filling in a bracket. One big thing to do is to take all personal allegiance to the school or schools your love and throw that to side. You want to pick your bracket with a clear head and not with your heart. When it comes to the number one seed vs the sixteen seed, always pick the one seed. Since the bracket began the number one seed has never lost to a sixteen seed in the history. So rule one is always pick the one seeds in the first round. The two vs the fifteen seed is essentially the same as rule one, even though some two seeds have lost I would always recommend you to pick the two seed for my rule number two. The eight seed vs the nine seed is a lot harder to pick. I would say it is about a 50/50 shot. I look at the teams and first look at the level of competition they have played and what conference they are coming from. If they is one team that seems to have played better, or played better competition, I would go with that team. It is essentially a fifty percent win difference between the eight and nine seeds. Then we go the five seed vs the twelve seed. Rule number three always at least pick one twelve seed to win in the first round. Most likely the five seed will win but the twelve seeds have made it hard on the five seeds and have one at least one game in the last few years. Next, the four vs thirteen is known as the thirteen – four upset game. Unless a team really does something thing for you, go with the four seeds as my rule number four. Rule five is for the six vs the eleven seeds. This is a tricky game, it’s all about the match ups, rule five is to listen to analyst and go with the match up in the six vs eleven game. The last games in the first round is the seven vs eleven seeds. This to me is another one of those 50/50 games, depending on the teams playing. Rule six for these games is to go with the hot team. So after looking at the first round you want to have a dark horse higher seed to move on and to make some noise in the tourney.

The second round is a little different then the first round. History would tell us that most of the time the higher seed is going to win that game. If you do get a bunch of upsets that you are predicting, the only thing I can tell you is to go with your gut, because if you are going with a lot of upsets you are usually picking with your heart. But, I do believe that there will always be one higher seed to sneak into the Sweet 16. You need to have your dark horse and stick with it.

Once you get into the Sweet 16, I believe it all about match ups. Teams that win two games in the tournament do not care what seed they are. Throw away the seeds and worry more about the match ups and the way they are playing coming into the games in the Sweet 16. A hot team like a seven seed UCONN a few years ago, got hot at the right time and just got the right match ups and were playing great team basketball. The elite eight is the same thing, look for the match ups and for players that can dominate. You rarely win in the tournament without that player with the “it” factor, or that team that plays tremendous team basketball.

Now you get to the Final Four, my biggest thing is to not pick with your heart and pick with your head. Do not take in to account what teams you like and what teams you dislike. And the same goes with the championship game. Once you start taking into account and why you don’t want this team to win you have already lost. With the final four and championship, odds are there will be a number one seed there, because they are the best teams in the country.

With all that be said, pick with your head and not your heart. Listen to your gut feeling and do not second guess yourself. Second guessing yourself can kill your bracket and just give yourself headaches.

College Basketball Rankings

Pages

"How-To"

No comments:

Post a Comment

Blog Archive

About