by JM Van Horn

Created on: March 03, 2009

When your calendar reads March 15th, people across the nation will be focused on one thing, March Madness and filling out numerous brackets. They will start to pull out their hair as they try to figure out if which teams are going to make it to the Final Four that will be played in Detroit. The following things have helped provide me with moderate success past NCAA tournaments and they could prove to be useful with your March Madness brackets.

- The Regular Season Can Be Overrated -

When it comes to the polls, it is nice for a team to be ranked as one of the best 25 teams in the nation, but by no means is it a solid indicator of where a team truly stands. The perfect example is LaSalle, who entered the tournament with a 29 1 record in 1990 and lost in the second round of the tournament to Clemson. The same goes for those less than stellar teams who gain entry to March Madness by winning their conference tournaments. In 2008, the tournament had their first 20 loss team in the field of 65 when Coppin State earned an automatic bid for winning the MEAC conference tournament.

- The First Round is Susceptible to Upsets -

Remember, a # 16 seed has never beaten a # 1 seed since the field was expanded to 64 teams. Do not be the one person in your pool to rest your hopes on College of Charleston being able to upset the University of Connecticut. When it comes to the #15 seed, teams have had very little success as well. Only 4 teams have been able to knock off the # 2 seed in the first round of the tournament.

But by no means does this mean you should ignore lower ranked teams because they are plenty of upsets in the tournament. The lower ranked teams that have the most success in the first round of March Madness have been the #10 through # 12 seeds. On average the lower ranked team has been able to earn a victory against a higher seeded team 35 percent of the time. The chance for an upset continues to decrease as the teams move deeper into the tournament. Remember this when you are filling out the later rounds of your bracket.

- Foresight is Key to Success -

When it comes to having a successful run with your bracket, it is important to remember to look beyond the excitement of the first round. You need to take a look at what teams you have advancing and what kind of history they have against their potential opponents. If you see a favorable path for a particular team that will help them reach the Elite Eight, by all means select them, no matter what seed they are. Every year

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