my first March Madness pool

[jay_gatsby_cat]

Since all kittens should care about college basketball, I've entered my first March Madness basketball pool. Too many decisions to be made. Started out with the favorites, then tweaked each entry a little. With a few games over, I'm still at 100% on all entries. "Grandma" assures me I shouldn't be too pleased with my beginner's luck... I was hoping

Comments

[diablo_guapo]

for the pool, the key thing is to get as many of the sweet 16 as possible. if you miss upsets in the first round, you don't lose as many possible points as you do when you miss games in the later rounds. of course, the more games you get right--period--the better off you are... but really, mom's right: first-day results, while nice, don't necessarily compute to long-term success...

[jay_gatsby_cat]

yeah, well my results took a nose dive. No longer at 100%. Down to 81.2 or something like that...of course, in my defense, I don't think I've watched a complete college basketball game in years...but if I'm reading you correctly, that doesn't completely count me out at the stage....

[diablo_guapo]

yeah, you're never completely out after the first day, unless all your final four picks lose in the opening round... and if that's the case, then you've got larger issues anyway! really, the weekend that clarifies the potential winners from the likely losers in the pool is the second round and then next weekend--first, how many of the sweet 16 teams you get right, and then how many of the elite 8 teams. if you're in good position with those (12/16, 6/8 is what i usually aim for to keep my hopes going), then you've got a shot at winning it all...

[jay_gatsby_cat]

yikes....I'm now on college basketball playoff information overload.....but this is good to know. I think only one of my entries lost a final 4 team (I picked Duke) but I guess my others are still in fairly decent shape now that I know this.