Dos and Don'ts of March Madness Bracketing

Wanna be charged with a case of bracketeering?

Don't get on my bad side when it comes to filling out March Madness brackets. I'll point out the few types of folks that bother me the most.

(P.S. If you want to join my Yahoo bracket league, click on the following link and join: http://y.ahoo.it/Z7vBSl5l or just look up Group 12771 on Yahoo's Fantasy Sports Tournament Pick'Em page)

Don't Be The...

1. Guy Who Fills Out 10 Brackets...and then is bragging when one of them has an upset that occurred. If you want to fill out several brackets, that's cool. But one of your brackets has to be the master copy - the one which has what you think will actually happen, not every single upset possible just to brag when one of the 30 comes in.

2. Guy Who Picks a Square Bracket - Will each bracket feature a #1 vs. #2. in the regional final? Probably not. Will the top 4 seeds in each bracket make it to the Sweet 16? I'm going out on a limb and saying no. Please, please, please....don't be that guy who picks nothing but the highest seeds to advance in every round. Even if you're in a money pool, there's a handful of people already doing that, so you will need some variety to your picks.

If your bracket looks like this, don't join my pool. Or any pool for that matter. Your brackets need a little variety and spice.

3. Guy Who Picks Notre Dame over Montana in the NCAA Final: According to a friend of mine, he knows someone who has this match-up as the championship game of the tourney. If anyone does this in the groups I entered, I will say - thank you for your donation. At this point, you've probably picked so many upsets that winning the pool is completely unrealistic.

I'd be willing to donate a testicle to science if this is the NCAA final game.


On the other hand, you should be the....

1. Guy who has a handful of double digit seeds winning in the first full round. What fun is it to pick all the top seeds (1-8)?

And while we're at it, you should sprinkle in a few of these teams into the Sweet 16. Not all of them, but some of them.

2. Guy who has 1 or 2 #1 seeds in the Final Four. The likelihood of all 4 #1 seeds making the Final Four pays off at a 50/1 clip on 5dimes. On the other end, the likelihood of no #1 seeds making the Final Four is a 4/1 proposition - 12.5 times more likely to happen than all #1s. The best odds lie in 1 or 2 top-seeds to make the Final Four. My bracket fits this bill.

For what it's worth, the sportsbooks have the over/under of the total sum of all seeds in the Final Four to be at 12.5 - which my picks are slightly under that. I'll post some more of the fun props below.

3. Guy who has a top 3 seed winning the tourney.  Realistically, the top 3 seeds are the best bet when determining who will be the champion. In the 30 previous Final Fours of my lifetime (including 1983), there have been only four teams who have been seeded 4th or higher that won the title, and none since Arizona as a 4 seed in 1997.

Many of you are entering pools when doing these brackets, so why not think over some of these tips when entering your brackets? I wish everyone the best of luck with their brackets. I will post my bracket on Thursday.

In the meantime, ponder some of these props that are on 5dimes:

Thu 3/21		15743 All #1-#4 seeds in Final 4		+173
1:40PM		15744 Any #5-#16 seed in Final 4		-205

Thu 3/21		15731 Exactly three #1-#3 seeds in Final 4		+135
1:40PM		15732 Not exactly three #1-#3 seeds in Final 4		-155

I already have a bet from late last month on California to win the tournament at 225/1 odds - 15 to win 3750. I am considering some other long shots (Kansas State at 100/1 & Illinois at 275/1 are crossing my mind).

Hawaii 5-0: 50 Awesome Things About the Aloha State

Rather than write an actual blog, I'm going to list 50 things about Hawaii that I like/reasons to visit Hawaii. It took me several days to write this blog. In no particular order, here we go:

Probably the best view from my hotel room. How can you not want to go to Hawaii?

1. 85 and sunny

2. Fresh pineapple

3. Running views like this:

4. Catamaran trips

5. Hearing waves crash in the night sky

6. Delicious local brew

7. Fruity drinks - not just for women and effeminate men. At least not in Hawaii. Shhhhh....

8. Last in the Union, but certainly not the least

Delicious Kona beer

9. Isolation - all by itself in the Pacific

10. Natives treat you like family

11. Pro sports start at 1pm local time - not sure I'd like NFL starting at 7am though.

Not even 10 mins off the plane and I got leied. 

12. Leis - how can you not feel welcomed after being greeted with one?


13. Exotic animals

14. Whale watching

15. Swimming year-round

16. No snow - ever (this isn't a selling point for me, but it should be for others)

17. Pearl Harbor

And this isn't even the best view

18. Hotel views like this:

19. Polynesian Cultural Center

20. Luaus

21. Hawaiian shirts - usually only associated with festive folks. I once embraced these shirts after becoming great friends with Jeremy Spencer. Now, only one Hawaiian shirt remains in my collection.

22. Being named Chief Bolek thanks to interaction with New Zealanders at #19

Before being named Chief - a dance that us Tango2ers were all in sync for

23. Paddleboarding - didn't do this activity, but I imagine it would be worth living in Hawaii for.

24. Being called "cousin" or "uncle" by people you don't even know. Goes back to #10

25. Running into random celebrities, like Donovan McNabb.

26. Poolside TVs

27. Leaving window open and hearing the waves as I fall asleep

28. Skydiving, 29. Sushi. 30. Snorkeling - I didn't try or have time to consume all of these activities, but all of the co-workers who did seemed to enjoy themselves when they did. I'll have to recommend on their behalf.

31. Leaving the work laptop from arm's length for the most part of the trip - it's so hard to remove myself from all of the technology that I use on a daily basis, especially as it is related to work. I recommend leaving all electronics in your room if you stay in Hawaii if at all possible

32. Making people jealous with continuous photos posted on social networks.

33. What good is a trip to Hawaii without awesome people to hang out with? Again, couldn't have enjoyed Hawaii without the great company of Tango2 folks.

34. No need to wear pants. I mean, still need to wear shorts...so don't get any ideas of turning Hawaii into a European beach.

35. Getting a ride from the cab service to the airport, having him apologize for the weather for the week, when only the initial arrival (a rare rain storm) was remotely bad. If that's as bad as you got, I'd like you to meet Ms. Chicago. Ms. Chicago, meet Honolulu....discuss.

36. Nothing but sandals. Everyone gets to see my unpedicured feet, with ten toes that have way too short of toenails. Too much information...I digress.

37. Time change where you can call your g/f before you go to bed, but after she wakes up from sleep for work. This happened once on the trip.

38. Participating in a volunteering event. We volunteered at a shelter, repainting the building's doors, sanding down tables and powerwashing the outside. The best thing about Tango2 - how we give back to the community.

39. Golf course - again, one of those things I didn't do. When driving by the course, it looked amazing. Perhaps it's my lack of golf playing in the past couple years.

40. Have you made it this far down the list? Gonna have to start making things up. I'll go with "Aloha". It's such a versatile word - "Hello", "Goodbye", "Love" are just some of its many upbeat meanings.

41. Greeted with a smile everywhere. Being on a resort area sure helps, but even off the resort area, people seemed happy. Hard not to be, as described by everything above.

42. The Naked Pirate. It's a drink, not what I'm dressing up for Halloween as (at least not in the plans). If you've never had the drink, it contains gin, rum and pineapple juice. I thought it'd be stronger than it was.

43. Plenty of reading time...in airplanes. There's no short path to Hawaii, so you'll have time to catch up on some book/magazine reading. I was able to start/finish a couple of books.

44. Seeing the oil still bubbling from the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. Over 70 years later. Mind-blowing.

Mitsuo Fuchida

45. This book is worth your money if you visit Pearl Harbor gift shop (or if you want to buy it on Amazon):


46. A nice year-round tan, if that's your thing. Just make sure you carry sunscreen.

47. Tropical, casual clothes to work meetings.

48. Did I mention pineapple already? I did? It's worth mentioning twice.

49. And pineapple.....and....yeah.

and finally 50...something to look forward to when I come back to the mainland: a rose, a pineapple, and a pretty g/f.