Lebodome: March Madness Time!
March 4, 2006: Students storm the court after George Washington University’s double-overtime victory over UNC-Charlotte, securing a perfect home record and finishing the season 26-1. (Scott Leibowitz)
From Scott Leibowitz. Find Scott on Twitter @Lebodome. Email him at [email protected].
Oh, March. Easily in my top three months of the year for various reasons. One, there is a day on which we all suddenly become Irish and it’s socially acceptable to drink like a college freshman. Two, my birthday is right in the middle of the month. Three, it marks the end of winter and transition to spring. But one of my favorite things about this month is the madness, the dance and march to the finals. I am of course talking about college basketball’s playoffs in the form of the almighty bracket: March Madness.
I remember my first bracket. I was about 6 or 7 and the internet was still just an Al Gore joke, so to have a bracket you had to cut out the one from the local paper and make copies. Now I seem to have a CBS Sports, Facebook, Yahoo, and ESPN bracket, and because there are so many, it’s tough to have them all congruent. While the medium has changed, the challenge and the glory of winning your bracket pool remains the same. Last year I won my local “DC bro’s” pool, my girlfriend in her first year won my family one; I have been reminded of this often.
Thanks to one of my favorite twitter accounts Darren Rovell, here are some interesting figures:
- The odds of getting a perfect bracket are 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 1.
- There are 9.2 quintillion combinations in a March Madness bracket. There are 43 quintillion combinations in a Rubik’s Cube.
- Out of the 5.9 million brackets filled out last year on http://ESPN.com, only TWO brackets had the correct Final Four.
Bottom line: There is sometimes no rhyme or reason to teams winning and losing. In the end, anything can happen, except for a #16 team beating a #1, which has actually NEVER happened.
To get ya’ll ready this week, here are some helpful reminders and tips.
Games Start Wednesday Night. So get it done soon. Can’t put this off for the weekend. Even Barack Obama get’s his done in time.
Best Win vs. Worst Loss. You can tell a lot about a team from strength of schedule (RPI) but to get a quick glance, look at their schedule. What was their best win and worst loss? These two games can tell you the character of the team and if they really can go deep. Home losses to bad teams always stick out for me.
This Isn’t Science Class. “Experts” don’t know perfect equations. There is a ton of chance. Can’t decide? Ignore ESPN and go with your gut. You’ll feel better about that than if a commentator leads you astray.
However you do decide, don’t forget it’s just a bunch of college kids playing hoops. If your alma mater is at the dance, good luck (unless its Georgetown, in which lose early). Have a great St. Patrick’s Day and enjoy March Madness.
What’s Been Making Me Laugh Recently?
Redskins fans thinking their team is suddenly playoff bound. RGIII is not Peyton, not by a long shot.
Links! Links! Ice Cold Links!
- This tumbler speaks volumes on so many day-to-day occurrences.
- It’s a good time to be a bandwagon jumper on the Washington Nationals.
- The opposite for the Wizards. If you ever were on, jump off.
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