The Girl's Guyde

So if you can't beat them, you might as well have fun joining them. In filling out your bracket, don't get intimidated at picking your teams. While there are some strategies that the pros love to tout, the great thing about March Madness is the unpredictability of the games. Highly ranked teams may get eliminated early (this is like you eliminating one of your prom date contenders you had really high hopes for because it turns out he's got really bad body odor and a hairy back) while teams that were expected to get eliminated early end up surprising everybody (the awkward guy on your prom date list turns out to be really funny and charming- once you get to know him. Who'd of thought?) . That's part of what makes the tournament so exciting- it's hard to predict what happens so it levels out the playing field somewhat.

Now, if you've been picking your teams based on mascot cuteness and that works for you, by all means, carry on. For those of you looking for a filled out bracket presented to you on a silver platter, we'll be posting our picks tomorrow (um...maybe minus the silver platter). That being said, if you're looking for some strategies to make your own selections, we've got you covered (don't worry, you can still tell people you made your picks based on the mascots if you want).

First, a couple of things to keep in mind. Winning the office pool doesn't mean you have to correctly pick the champion, no matter what type of scoring system your office is using. You get points for every team you correctly pick to advance to the next level, so it's possible that you pick the wrong team to win the championship but still win your office pool, unlike the poor sap that did miraculously pick the right championship winner, but screwed everything else up. That said, you still need to be a little daring and risky because the best is if you pick a team to advance that everyone else didn't. So here's what the bracket looks like now. What's circled is the opening round game, which happens tomorrow to determine who's going to play as #16 in the East, and it'll be either Alabama State or Morehead State. Don't worry, that game isn't apart of the office pool, so just wait until Tuesday and fill in the correct team.

Step 1: For the First and Second Rounds, it's generally a good idea to pick the higher ranked team to go on to the second round, especially when you've got two unevenly matched teams (a #1 ranked team playing a #16 ranked team). If you're one for historical facts, a #16 ranked team has never won a game in the tournament, and it's kinda rare for a #15 seed to win a game (though it's been done). The lowest seeded team ever to win the championship was #8 ranked Villanova, but that was way back in the 80s, when they were still celebrating the short basketball shorts, Aquanet and big perms. There are still a few quirks. For instance, there is usually a #12 ranked team that beats a #5 ranked team every year. You could take your chances and guess who this might be, but at a risk- there are four #5 vs. #12 games and if you pick the wrong #12 to win, it could be an early on disaster, especially if the #5 team you eliminated in the first round ends up advancing far into the tournament. Also, in round 1 when it comes to choosing between the #8 and #9 teams, don't stress, the winner plays the #1 ranked team next and will usually be eliminated then.

Step 2: A lot of people make their picks based on stats- and some even go into making up their own analysis and modeling programs trying to predict a winner. Unless you want to run the risk of going blind from trying to read and figure out what a bunch of numbers mean, die from boredom AND have a sucky bracket, conducting your own stats analysis is not recommended. That being said, take a look at the teams. Are the coaches veterans? Is there a team with a superstar who's NBA bound next year? And while we advocate not looking too much into the stats, that doesn't mean you should discard what OTHER people are saying about the stats. Which brings us to...

Step 3: Consider the pundits (experts). Joe Lundari, Dick Vitale and Jerry Palm eat, breathe and live this stuff. March Madness is their Christmas. Joe is ESPN's expert, Dick went rouge and has his own site at dickvitaleonline.com (there's a lot of cheesy opening music on his site- you've been warned) and Jerry's a stats man and runs www.collegerpi.com. There's a lot of mixed feelings out there about the pundits- everyone's got a slightly different tweak on things and sometimes they're super wrong. So look for commonalities between the pundits. If Joe, Dick and Jerry all pick UNC to be in their top four then it might be something for you to consider. Just remember that nothing is guaranteed and it's "Madness" for a reason.

Step 4: From the Final Four on up to the Championship is really a crapshoot. Go with your instincts- even if that means going with the cutest mascot.

Hope this gets you started, and remember to check back tomorrow to see our tourney picks, a tidy recap of what the pundits are saying, and who we think will win it all in Deeeetroit.