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Sports

10 Tips for Filling Out Your Bracket Without Having Watched A Game

Not everyone has had the time to become a bracket expert, so Patch offers up some advice

March Madness has finally arrived. After more than four months of college basketball games, it’s time to finally print out the brackets and predict a champion.

But who’s had the time to watch and research all 68 teams in this year’s field? With the Bulls, Blackhawks and Bears all in contention for a championship, college basketball has taken a backseat in Chicago.

As per usual, our hometown squads – Northwestern and Depaul – are absent from this year’s bracket. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other reasons to watch. Plenty of teams feature star players from the Chicago area, and SOMEBODY has to win the annual office pool.

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So here are 10 tips to filling out your bracket this year and hoping you take home the title of office champion.

1. Choose a Cinderella squad: The winners of office pools not only pick the right champion, but correctly identify the Cinderella team. While no one can say for sure which team is going to make the deep run, we all know it’s going to happen. Make sure a double-digit seed is in your Sweet 16.

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2. Pick your spots: Upsets are what make the NCAA Tournament fun, but find the right matchups before predicting an outcome too outrageous. A #16 seed has never beaten a #1 seed, and a #2 seed has only lost in the first round on four occasions. These should be the easiest eight games to pick. Go with the chalk.

3. Location, location, location: Every game is played at a neutral site, but that doesn’t prevent teams from still having home-court advantages. See if teams are playing close to home. North Carolina and Duke have the upper hand because their first- and second-round games are in Charlotte.

4. What’s in a name: One of the greatest things about the bracket is seeing the schools we don’t know. Wofford? Hampton? Not many people can name their mascot let alone their starting lineup. But don’t count those teams out. Remember George Mason from a couple years ago.

5. Throw out the seeds: Aside from tip #2, seeds are a fool’s way of picking games. All four #1 teams have only gotten to the Final Four on one occasion. Plus, who wants to only root for Goliaths?

6. By the numbers: If you really insist on doing some research before Thursday, consider picking teams by scoring margin. Teams who blow out their opponents consistently in the regular season tend to fare better in the tournament.

7. Don’t pick Duke: Besides the fact that nobody likes Duke (sorry Jon Scheyer fans in Northbrook), it’s very difficult to repeat as champions. The last team to do so was the Blue Devils themselves, but that was almost 20 years ago.

8. Coaches are the “x-factor”: While athletes get the credit for making the plays, coaching often is the difference within a game. This is especially true when teams have only two days to prepare for an unfamiliar matchup. Ride the coattails of big-name coaches that have been there before. Michigan State’s Tom Izzo is among the best at getting the most out of his team.

9. Follow the stars: Big-name players have the ability to carry a team far in the postseason. Shooters like Connecticut’s Kemba Walker and BYU’s Jimmer Fredette are capable of scoring 40 points on any night. Opposing defenses will key on them, but it’s nothing they haven’t seen during the regular season.

10. Go with your gut: In the end, nobody really knows how things are going to shake out. Fill out one bracket and don’t second-guess your decisions. It’s called March Madness for a reason! 

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