A few years ago I was in bracket pool and I had the first pick and I took Xavier and there were people laughing at me. One guy said “Xavier!!! Are they even in this tournament?” Well they won their opening 3 games, including taking out 2nd seeded Texas and the almost took out Duke and went o Final 4. Afterward someone said “that was the single greatest pick in the history of this pool”. I admit I’m not the college basketball expert that I used to be but I do know trick or 2 that might help you win your office pool, as it seems the same things happen every year.

First off you want to go with teams that are on a roll, and bet against teams that have been losing. Teams that have won their conference tourneys especially if they were conference champs in the regular season are very dangerous this time of year. Teams such as Stephen F. Austin, Eastern Washington, and Georgia St. are coming in really confident having won both the regular season title and the conference tourneys, and have no desire to be losing in the first round here. Others such as V.C.U. or Notre Dame didn’t win their conference regular season titles, but are coming in on a roll such as Xavier was a few years ago and may make a deep run

The 12th seed trick always works every year. For some reason the NCAA puts very live dogs every year as a 12th seed and they play a 5th seed that is really not that good. This year’s potential upsets are Buffalo over West Virginia, Wofford over Arkansas, SFA over Utah and Wyoming over Northern Iowa. Every year one or more of these teams win and messes up many a bracket, so be aware.

Recently there has been 11th seeded play-in winner that wins a few games. After winning early in the week they have advantage over a 6th seed that hasn’t gotten their “sea-legs” yet. B.Y.U. was overmatched vs. Gonzaga in their conference tourney but may be this year’s sleeper team if they beat Ole Miss on Tuesday

Go with teams that have been there before. There is no greater thing in sports than experience. Teams that have been there before such as Wisconsin ,Notre Dame  are going to be in every game whereas a team like the mighty Kentucky is a bunch of untested freshman and might choke and be ripe for an upset. Remember Chris Webber calling that famous timeout and killing the chances of the “Fab 5”.  Notre Dame who comes in very hot and just won the A.C.C. tourney, has many seniors and also went to Europe this summer may possibly take out Kentucky in the Regional Finals ,as Kentucky may be playing to not lose instead of playing to win, which is an entirely different thing. If they don’t then most definitely take the points and Wisconsin in the Final Four in the next round

On the other side we like Virginia who has not been playing well but does play good Defense to make deep run and a team like Gonzaga who are finally flying under the radar again to also win a few games here. Also look for teams who have very good coaches such as Larry Brown and SMU to do some damage.

As far as bets go we are calling up America’s Bookie today and putting a few bucks on SFA+ 6.5, E.Wash +7.5, and Wyoming +6. Enjoy the tourney guys it will be a fun 3 weeks that will lead into almost the post season of the NBA and NHL playoffs and before you know it we will be back betting on preseason football.