I love running office pools.
Specifically for the NCAA March Madness, it allows me to see everyone else’s picks before submitting my own form. Some might call that strategy slightly deceiving, but if you saw some of the picks that have trickled in during the last few days you would notice that it wouldn’t help me very much.
For example, I gave Rocky View Weekly editor Nathan Anderson a bracket and he had it back to me in less than three minutes. Not sure about his strategy, but I knew he was lost when he started asking me the difference between Florida, Florida State and Miami (who’s not even in the tournament).
I do like his pick of No. 5 Kansas State coming out of the Southeast bracket, however.
Not too many other surprises, with a few all No. 1 Final Fours (only ever happened once, in 2008) and a few potential bracket-busters – my favourite being No. 14 Bucknell beating Big East tournament champion UConn. My second-favourite is Morehead State (anyone know where that is without a Google search?), a No. 13 seed, going to the Elite Eight.
Three people have Purdue winning, which is a decent selection despite the fact they would have beat No. 2 Notre Dame and No. 1 Kansas just to get out of the Southwest bracket. Three others have Ohio State, the overall No. 1 and No. 1 in the East bracket, claiming the title game on April 4 – but I can’t stand the Buckeyes in college football (with its bribes, dirty players and head coach Jim Tressel’s awful sweater vests), so I’m transferring these feelings to the hard court.
My bracket is a bit different. I’ve stuck with my advice from last week’s Around The Kuhl-er and have two No. 13’s beating No. 4’s: Oakland over Texas and Belmont over Wisconsin. The lowest seed I have in the Sweet 16 is No. 12 Clemson, who beat Alabama-Birmingham in one of the play-in games just to get into the full tournament, in the East bracket.
The Final Four, in my estimation, will feature defending champion Duke, 2003 champion Syracuse (coming out as a three seed, just as they did with Carmelo Anthony that year to win me some sweet cash), No. 5 Kansas State, out of the upset-laden Southeast bracket, and Kansas.
My final has the Kansas Jayhawks beating the Duke Blue Devils. With this scenario, I’d win the entry fee from eight of my co-workers (and lose some of their respect if I don’t buy them lunch), as well as a trip for two to any professional basketball game from the TSN bracket challenge.
I hear Miami is nice this time of year.
