Occasionally, a topic comes up at a Terrapin basketball availability session that allows this blog to be about self-improvement. You might recall earlier this year when I turned a Gary Williams quote into a lesson for intramural basketball players.
Well, most of you will be filling out NCAA Tournament brackets in the next few days. (If you haven’t but want to, here’s a link to a contest run off The Diamondback’s Web site.) And hours before the team jetted off to Spokane, Wash., in advance of Friday’s NCAA Tournament opener, a few Terps had things to say about the pick-making process.
First of all, it’s been said that you’re more likely to get struck by lightning than get every game correct. Picking isn’t easy. Coach Gary Williams acknowledged that in a short rumination about the state of the NCAA Tournament. It’s easy to overthink the process.
Just because you watched 29 straight hours of ESPNU after the bracket was released doesn’t mean you have a considerable advantage over someone who has never heard of Greivis Vasquez . That’s part of the intrigue behind filling out a bracket.
“It takes over the country now,” Williams said of the tournament. “You get casual fans filling out brackets. In fact, the casual fans usually win the brackets—which is interesting. Some people like the colors of a certain team. Things like that. That usually pays off. That’s what’s great about it. You can jump into college basketball at this time of year without really following it that close during the season and still be a part of March Madness.”
In other words, if you correctly predict that Northern Iowa will knock off No. 1 overall seed Kansas in the second round of this year’s tournament, it’s probably because you heard that the Panthers have a sweet purple logo. And in a lot of ways, that’s what’s great about NCAA office pools.
Lesson No. 2 came courtesy Jordan Williams. The freshman noted that at this time last year, he was at home in Connecticut filling out his own bracket–very poorly.
His main issue? His bracket was too chalky. Sure, good teams win a lot of games, but there are going to be some upsets. This was evident last year with the No. 10 seed Terps’ win against No. 7 California.
“I actually had Maryland losing last year,” Williams said. “I just picked the higher seed every game. That’s what I did every year.”
His coach later deadpanned that perhaps four years in college will make Williams a more “mature” NCAA Tournament picker. The message, besides don’t pick against your future teammates, is that correctly nailing the three or four major upsets is what separates a good bracket from a great one.
A 2009 Microsoft survey estimated that 58 million people will fill out NCAA Tournament brackets. Some will pick Wofford to make the Elite Eight because they like the name of the school. Others will push the four No. 1 seeds along to the Final Four without much thought. Finding the right balance will probably hold the key to winning your office pool this year.
And if you start getting frustrated with your bracket later this week, take heart in the fact that you are probably beating Jordan Williams.
Eric Detweiler is The Diamondback’s Terrapin Men’s Basketball Team beat writer. He can be reached at edetweilerdbk@gmail.com. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/edetweiler.