March Madness

I've got my tournament selections. ESPN has a thing where you can fill out up to 10 brackets. I've done five. One is by intuition. Another was always picking the higher ranked team. Another was the higher ranked team except if within one ranking position, then picking the lower ranked team. Another the same except anything within 3 spots picking the upset (For example, picking #10 to beat a #7), and finally picking alphabetically. In all cases Kentucky trumps the choosing paradigm. (A word I've never used before, and I'm not sure its appropriate here, but I just feel smarter having used it.)

The alphabetic paradigm (Bam!) probably won't do well. In it I have Albany College getting into the championship game, then by default losing to Kentucky. I've of other strategies. I know someone who picked winners by climate - Teams from areas where the weather was better would probably be more well-adjusted and thus play better. Going by strength of mascot - Lions over bobcats, bears over wolverines, and cougars all over the ducks.

I'm rooting for Oregon and Kentucky - the two states I've lived in. Oregon probably makes it into the second round, then will be watching the rest on TV. Kentucky has the best shot of any single team. But the chance that they win the whole thing is only about 50-50 at best. They have to win 6 in a row. Even if you have an 80% chance of winning every game, to win two games in a row is .8x.8=64%. Three games is .8x.8x.8=51%. Four games is .8x.8x.8x.8=41%... So its going to be tough. I saw them beat up on Mississippi St last year. At least I think I did. I was second row from the top, and I had a touch of altitude sickness, but that's what it looked like. Two years ago they had an ESPN Gameday show from Rupp Arena on a Saturday morning. It was free and fun to watch how they filmed it. As part of lent I've given up televised sports. But I created a loophole where I can watch sports if I'm doing something else and a TV just happens to be on at that time. So I can go to Anytime Fitness and be on the treadmill while the game just happens to be on the TV. To watch a half takes about an hour, so it might be a little tricky. If need be - watch the first half on the treadmill - go across the street to McDonalds for halftime to rest up - go back for the second half. The first game should (?) be a blowout, so maybe I'll just do the first half of that one. Hopefully, Kentucky will be in it for all 6 games, but who knows?