Tuesday, March 31, 2009

March Madness

So I filled out a bracket this year, as always, even though I wasn't participating in a pool. But this year I added a twist. I am phenomenally bad at guessing the brackets. Really bad. So I decided to test myself. I filled out 2 brackets: one using my own best judgement, and the other using coin tosses. Yes, I filled out 1 bracket entirely by flipping coins. I wanted to see if my basketball knowledge was better than random chance.
Some highlights from the coin toss bracket: the coin picked Stephen F. Austin, a 14 seed, as the ultimate winner. Oh, you haven't heard of Stephen F. Austin? Well, that's probably because they lost in the first game. My Final Four had Stephen F. Austin, Washington, UCLA, and Robert Morris. That's a 14 seed, 4 seed, 6 seed, and a 15 seed. My coin really liked the underdog. My Final Four choices had all been eliminated by the Sweet Sixteen round. In short, my coin toss bracket was decimated.
So how did my own choices go? Sadly, I picked UT as the ultimate winner, losing that shot immediately after the first game. Half of my Final Four picks (Michigan, UConn, UT, Clemson) were gone by the Sweet Sixteen. However, I still have 2 Final Four picks correct.
What does it boil down to? I am, in fact, smarter than a coin toss. The coin toss got 19 bracket spots correct; I got 32 (maybe 33 if Michigan beats UConn). This is a relief. Maybe next year I can get a little bit better.

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