NCAA March Madness How To

If you are reading this lens, it's that time of year again.

The best month of the year! March! NCAA Tournament time!

You read now with your brackets in hand and a desire to win your office pool, or the ESPN challenge thingy - with millions of entrants vying for $10,000. (If one does the math, one realizes it's a long shot - the length-of-the-court, falling-out-of-bounds variety - to take the grand prize in that rat race.)

You want to become a Cinderella story. You want your March Madness slipper to fit. You seek office prominence, cube farm glory! But how? (Never mind why!)

Here are a few (hopefully) helpful hints:

Pick Upsets - Carefully!

Historically, 12-seeds regularly upset 5-seeds. A 13 over a 4 is realistic, too. Keep in mind - though it will happen one day - a 16-seed has never killed a 1-seed.

Giants Go Deep

College basketball's Davids can pick off Goliaths in the first two rounds, but nobody pulls surprises in the Sweet 16. No matter how heart-tugging a dark horse, switch mounts after the first two rounds to a colt with a pedigree (in other words, pick the famous, top teams).

Seniors Keep It Lively

The "X-Factor" during March Madness is the hard working, long suffering senior on his last go-round. When a match-up looks like a coin-flip, choose the team with an elder point guard who is not quite ready to end his career.

Guard Play Is Key

The pundits say it, so I figure I must repeat it (wink). Guard play wins championships. Pick teams with experienced, star guards.

And The Champion Is...

Who can say for sure in a given year? Strongly consider the following. Huge state schools and teams from conferences full of huge state schools win the NCAA tournament. In other words when you have filled out your bracket, your champion line had better hold the name of a school average people know (think Florida or Duke, not Holy Cross).

If you want to run the office pool gauntlet, that's my advice.