Your Thoughts On Bracket Picks

[Jimdish255]

Like Manu of you I will be filling out more than one bracket this year. Could go as high as eight. But as I look at my picks I'm torn between diversifying my picks, except for a few, teams with no shot, and blackballing certain teams either because of injury or Izzo, or the committee etc.. How do most of you handle that? Take more teams off the board early and focus on the sweet 16? Elite 8? Or spread different upsets around your brackets regardless of how you feel about other circumstances.

 

[61cygni]

Fewer upsets this year than most previous brackets for me, most of them in the West region. A bunch of 11/6 upsets to spread it around. Only one upset in our region (Obviously not against us).

EDIT: Think I misunderstood, yep only 1 bracket

 

[JayKoz]

I choose one bracket. Have some pools where multiple entries are cheaper than one, so I mix a combo of me/my dad and me/another friend along with their entries.

But for me personally? It’s just one bracket.

 

[willie99]

I'm obviously picking UConn and have the other Big East teams doing well

I have 5 games in 5 nights team NC St advancing deeper than I think most others will

I have A & M taking out Houston

I have four brackets, with a variety of 12's and 13's advancing in different brackets

I last won a bracket contest in 2006, when nobody picked the champion and most didn’t even have a final four team

 

[RedStickHusky]

Remember when your bracket was clipped from a newspaper and filled out in ink... good times.

 

[Mr.Aztec]

I’m obviously picking SDSU over the puppies. That is if the puppies can get past Stetson.

 

[MTBingNinja]

Difficult picking who’s going to win and lose. Started using statistics and a few other pieces. But over the years, I’ve come to realize the “experts” don’t know any more than we do.

 

[BGesus4]

I’m just drinking piss and putting the rest in God’s hands

 

[Deepster]

There are no thoughts. Let your office secretary or nephew pick it.

 

[bigknight3]

I choose one bracket. Have some pools where multiple entries are cheaper than one, so I mix a combo of me/my dad and me/another friend along with their entries.

But for me personally? It’s just one bracket.

Sheet of integrity!

 

[auror]

I'm somewhat fading the mountain west and big 12.

Drake in sweet 16 (playing basically at home, almost beat Miami last year, Iowa st mediocre offense).
Oregon and NC State in sweet 16.

UNC loses round of 32.

Kansas isn't upset, makes sweet 16.

 

[Tyler2Rings]

Kansas isn't upset, makes sweet 16.

That would ironically be somewhat of an upset

 

[HuskyHawk]

I'm somewhat fading the mountain west and big 12.

Drake in sweet 16 (playing basically at home, almost beat Miami last year, Iowa st mediocre offense).
Oregon and NC State in sweet 16.

UNC loses round of 32.

Kansas isn't upset, makes sweet 16.

With McCullar I thought KU even had a shot to beat Purdue. They are kind of built to do that. Dickenson outplayed Edey regularly when at Michigan. But now? Stopping Samford, which shoots 40% from three and plays fast, forces TOs and is 10 deep will be a huge task. It's a horrific matchup for KU.

 

[Fishy]

Wing it.

Everyone stops caring after the first two days anyway and a woman who picked games based on the mascots will win your office pool.

 

[richw]

Mississippi State final 4. We will see in a few hours. My dislike for mich. St. Show much?

 

[HuskyHawk]

There are a couple brackets I think are tough to call.

Midwest bottom I think any of Tennessee, Creighton or South Carolina could get to the elite 8 or even final four.

West bottom half is wide open. Nevada, New Mexico could beat any of those teams. I think Clemson is over seeded at 6, Arizona is a habitual choker (not picking them to this year) and Baylor is really inconsistent for a 3 seed.

 

[RedStickHusky]

I'm pretty sure the saying "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" sprung from filling out brackets.

 

[McLovin]

Just one bracket. Stopped doing multiple brackets a few years ago when I felt it was too hard to keep track of which games I was rooting for.

But I’d base your strategy on the point system of your pool… if it rewards upsets, I’d be more inclined to try to pick a bunch of different upsets in the first rounds and pick the same teams across the brackets in the later rounds. If the pool is a standard scoring league, I’d probably roll with the same first rounds picks and diversify the picks for the later rounds E8 / F4 / Champion.

 

[Fishy]

Mississippi State final 4. We will see in a few hours. My dislike for mich. St. Show much?

lol…yes.

 

[storrsroars]

One on espn, one on CBS. I keep the same FF and NC, but choose different early upsets.

 

[jleves]

Every year after the first weekend, I tell myself I will not get sucked into the Boneyard bias for my picks next year. Then another trip around the sun and I do stupid things after reading the board like picking Mich St to go down in the first round, picking McNeese to upset Gonzaga, and picking BYU to make a deep run.

Maybe next year.... but probably not.

 

[Martin]

My dark horse was South Carolina.

 

[HuskyHawk]

My dark horse was South Carolina.

Mine too. But I’ve been hilariously wrong about everything so far. Had McNeese too.

 

[GameTime]

All my round of 32 winning picks are still viable. So that’s something, pretty good considering my round of 64 picks sucked out loud so far.

 

[Sibeerian]

Two different brackets for two pools, because one of them gives you the extra points when the lower seed wins. UConn winning both though.