Mid-March is the time for sports enthusiasts to fill out their March Madness brackets to guess the winners of the 65 basketball games that determine the Division 1 National Champions. While the games themselves are entertaining, the most interesting part of March Madness may be the various methods fans use to pick the teams they think will come out on top.
Some fans fill out a bracket for fun and games while others do it to try to win big bucks, but either way, each person has his or her own rational for choosing certain teams. Some people will spend hours upon hours studying stats and pondering who will be upset while others will choose teams based on the appeal of their mascot or uniforms. There is also the coin-flip method, the who-would-win-if-they-got-in-a-street fight method, the favorite-vacation-destination method, and don’t forget the how-far-does-the-team-have-to-travel-to-their-game method.
At AHS students started filling their brackets out about a week ago. Junior Parker Cyza filled his bracket out with a lot of thought; he looked up ranking and stats and judged how the teams will do in the tournament. Parker choose Duke to win the championship because he believes, “When Duke plays their best, they’re the best team in college basketball.”
Sophomore Jordan Mills also choose Duke to win the championship, but said he used just, “Common sense. Look at them and see who is better. It’s simple.” Much like Jordan, Sophomore Brian Gould also used common sense methodology, but he chose Louisville as the ultimate Champions.
Other people, like Junior Sofii Fox, who have less knowledge of the teams’ stats and records, filled brackets out using less obvious methods. Sofii said she filled hers out by deciding who had the better mascot and, ironically, she also came up with Duke as the ultimate champion.
Junior Krista Carter chose Indiana to win the championship. Krista said that she used a mixture of knowledge and less scientific methods. For instance, if it was a close game, she went with the team whose coach she liked better.
With all of the faith some put into researching coaches, stats, and records and all of the faith others put into their less scientific methods, the truth is there is no perfect way to fill out a bracket. In the end it all comes down to how the teams perform in one particular game and, most likely, a bit of luck.
According to NBCCHICAGO.com, in 2010 an autistic teenager by the name Alex Hermann filled out a perfect bracket. Otherwise there have been no other documented cases of someone picking a perfect bracket. Seventeen-year-old Alex said he studied the teams all season to come up with his perfect picks. In doing so Alex beat the odds. In fact, he almost accomplished the impossible because statisticians say the odds of filling out a perfect bracket this year is 1 in 9.2 quintillion, that’s a nine with eighteen zeros behind it.
Now the games are underway and some people’s brackets are already starting to fall apart while others are celebrating with each win. Did anyone in Alliance beat the odds and pick a perfect bracket? Monday, April 8 the championship game will reveal all. Good luck!
