March 13, 2006
NCAA 2006 Basketball Tournament - Conservatives Only
As conservatives have lives, we can enjoy activities outside of politics--unlike our liberal friends whose lives are consumed with gloom and despair. So, let's take a look at the 2006 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship tournament. As a service to our readers, here is a link to a printable bracket of the tournament showing locations and times of the games--suitable for penciling in your picks. In addition, here are links to NCAA Sports, Fox Sports, and CBS Sportsline for information to help with your selections. However, we remind you that gambling on the games (outside of Las Vegas) may be illegal--and we know that you would never participate in office pools.
Who are you picking to go to the Final Four, what upsets do you see, and which team do you think will take it all?
Posted by Woody at March 13, 2006 09:20 PM | TrackBackI have a trial bracket with a F4 of Uconn, Duke, Gonzaga, and Ohio State. I already don't like it.
I do have some statistical knowledge worth having. Rankings 5-12 are identical. Over the last 20 years, 11 seeds do as well as 6 seeds in the first round. There is actually a slight advantage of 5's over 12's, but it's still close to 50-50. 1 & 2nd seeds are locks (only one exception), and 3's and 4's win more than 80% of the time.
After making it through the first round, those 10-14th seeds don't do so well, however. It does happen that a 10th or 12th seed will make through two rounds to the S16, but very seldom. Lightning seldom strikes 3 times.
During the regular season, the home team has about a four-point advantage. Few teams get to play on an actual home court during the NCAA's but you can figure a 1-3 plus swing for playing very near home.
My two dark horses -- 9th seed or below who could go deep into the tournament (but have no chance of winning it all) are in the same bracket: George Mason and Seton Hall.
The other type of dark horse, a 3-8 seed who could win it all, I have a very bad history picking accurately. But for show, I will pick one from each bracket: BC, Pittsburgh, UNC, and Iowa.
Posted by Assistant Village Idiot at March 13, 2006 10:38 PM
