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Since mid March I have pretty much been in a sports-overdose-induced -coma along with most other sports fans in America. March Madness is the buildup and play-out of the NCAA (National College Basketball) involving teams from schools across the country. It seems to me that the entire country (including the new President) goes nuts for the month.
Since my arrival in the States I've been indoctrinated in the feats of the Tar Heel, from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill - a leading contender to take the national title and coincidently the university that Jamie went to. In the regular season, the Heels play in the Atlantic Coast Conference which, according to Jamieta, is the strongest conference in the country. I've been dragged, kicking and screaming I might add, to a sports to see every game and consume the obligatory 'wings' and beer. In the build up to the NCAA after these pilgrimages I started to get into the game and the Tar Heels performance. Please Note: That prior to visiting the states I knew next to nothing about basketball so I felt this was a good experiment in 'cultural immersion' - some go and live in the jungles of the Amazon, but I eat wings and drink beer!
A week prior to the NCAA kickoff I got introduced to a whole new level of sports fan involvement - BRACKETOLOGY. Bracketology is a real word and apparently a real science. It involves picking the teams through the round of the NCAA Tournament. Sounds simple? Well it's not. The tournament has six rounds and all your picks for who is going to win each game have to be in prior to the start of the tourney. The first round involves 64 teams and 32 games, in the second the 32 winners play off for a spot in the sweet-sixteen, the sixteen winners to the elite eight and so on in the same sudden death format until a winner is found. Sounds daunting now? Well it is! Much the way that Footy tipping comps are run at home 'Brackets' are run here. Points are allocated for the correct picking of the winner of each game in the bracket, just remember that if you picked the wrong teams getting to the following round, you've got no hope of being right! As the tournament progresses there are more bracketology points awarded for correct picks in successive rounds.
Knowing nothing about College Basketball I was in a bit of a bind un to how to make the picks for my brackets. Fortunately the NCAA tournament is such a big event that there is oodles of stats and ranking for all these teams across the country (many of them meet each other in the tournament for the first time in the year). So I did what any good engineer would do and found a lot of ranking data for all the teams involved and averaged this giving each team in the tournament (yes all 64). I then went through the games and where there was a clear differential of three ranks or more I picked the higher team. For the games between teams of close ranking from 'my' system I firstly pick the Atlantic Coast Conference team, taking Jamie's advice. If they were still close I looked at the defense/offence statistics that the NCAA site published. Basically I relied on math and a bit of favoritism for my bracket. I entered my bracket into Jamie's school staff competition. And before you asked I did pick the Tar Heels to win (so did Barak).
The first round kicked off, or rather tipped off, on the 19th of March. It was a week long and there were a number of quiet close games. This round being the longest, was quiet good for me picking 26 of the 32 winners. In the pool I was competing in I was coming first. Win one for the power of the average!
As the tournament progressed I tried to catch almost every game - some of them were very close (1-3 points) and watching the last 2-3minutes of the game was heart attack material. Unfortunately in the second, third and fourth round my picking went downhill as pretty much all the Atlantic Coast Conference teams I picked on Jamie's advice sucked! Maths beats emotion Q.E.D.
In the wash the Tar Heels finally won the month of madness with a rather disappointingly once sided final. Surprising to many not at least myself, I came second in the school's bracketlogy by a single point to the Janitor! I guess slick statistics is never a substitute for actual game knowledge (and/or blind luck).
Where did Jamie come? Luckily, her beloved Tar Heel's won so not even being beaten by her basketball ignorant Aussie mate could dampen her mood. Which was very lucky for me………..
P.S. I do find it amusing that March Madness ends in April(April 6th), I guess it's a bit like Oktoberfest starting in September.
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