Getting Ready for March Madness...

So I spent over an hour filling in my NCAA Tournament bracket. I'm not kidding. And the sad part is that, as I write, I'm still not actually done with my submission. The window is still sitting open on the screen and I'm sure I'll go back and second guess myself about 10 more times. Then I'll get pissed off because I second guessed and missed out on much-needed points.

I only do one tournament pool each year. I used to do more than one, but then the logistics of strategically filling out two or more brackets just drove me nuts. You're not really hedging any bets by choosing one team to win on one bracket and picking the other team on the second bracket. All of the variances net out to zero in the end anyway, and you're left with two equally crappy brackets.

Any case, the one pool I do is Dad's office pool. Been in it for years, and the guy who runs it (Bill) sends me the details each year without asking Dad to pass on the details to me. This guys knows that I'm game. Especially since Bill and I are rivals in the pool. For many years, we were both fighting each other for the top spot and many times, I ended up losing to him or one of his buddies. In fact, a number of years ago, I was convinced that this guy was fixing the pool. There was just no way that one guy does so well year in and year out, especially the guy who's the commissioner of the pool. Seemed very sketchy. Then Bill started doing pretty crappy for a few years, and later we entered the age of the online brackets. By doing everything online, there couldn't be any discrepancies, so my conspiracy theory went by the wayside. (What is "the wayside"? Always wondered that...)

So at this point, it really doesn't matter what I do in the pool since one of the secretaries, or some lady's 10 year old daughter will end up being in the running for the prize money. Of course, none of these people end up winning, but it's amazing that they end up in contention for much of the tournament.

With all of this being said, here's some of Ross' Rules for Completing Your NCAA Tournament Bracket:

- Teams that lost to Penn State during the regular season can't be going very far (Indiana & Illinois)

- As much as you hate Duke and UConn, you know they'll be there toward the end, so just pick them and get it over with. There, I officially jinxed them.

- At least one double-digit seed makes it to the Sweet 16 every year. It ends up being a #10 for sure, usually a #11, and sometimes a #12. I like Southern Illinois and Seton Hall to make it to the Sweet 16. Mark that one down.

- Don't get caught up in the hype of the teams that make big runs in their conference tournaments, since they are due for a letdown. (Syracuse, Iowa, Florida)

- I don't care if Pitt is playing against a team of 50 year old Jewish midgets from Brooklyn, I will still pick against Pitt.

- Don't pick all four #1 seeds to get the Final Four. Never happens. Don't bother.

- Always consider taking Penn in an upset. Except when they are a #15 seed playing against a hot Texas team. Then forget it.

- As much as I'd love to see Villanova win the championship, they won't win it. This isn't 1985 and Rollie Massimino isn't coaching the team. They are a solid squad, I just can't see them winning the whole thing. I think Allan Ray is lucky he can see at all after that incident last weekend. So that's how it looks when a person's eyeball is almost out of the socket...

- If you've never heard of the school, odds are that they won't win their first round game.

- Those #13 seed upsets over #4 seeds look tempting, but it's a risky pick. They happen once every couple of years, so make your selections wisely.

And if you have any other concerns as to how to go about making your picks, please reference this article. Bill Simmons observes while his mom and his wife make their selections. Very funny indeed.

Who's excited for the Big Dance???