Weekends like this one are exciting to watch. Underdogs come up with big upsets, powerhouses are shocked, and endless buzz is created. It's a lot of fun. It's a little less fun, however, when you've trumpeted up your foolproof prediction method and get to watch it all fall to pieces. Let's review:
West Virginia 73, Duke 67. Duke was rated a full two and a half points higher in the SPI - high enough to earn them a spot in the finals in my bracket. West Virginia ruined my life again this year, knocking Duke out in the second round. They knocked off UConn a few years back in the second round as a 7 seed. I'm not too keen on those Mountaineers.
Stanford 82, Marquette 81. One point the other way and we aren't having this discussion. I went out of my way to talk about how overrated Stanford is and how underrated Marquette is. So much for that.
Realistically, those are the only two big upsets I had. I have 12 of the 16 remaining teams correct so far (only wrong on Washington State, Villanova, Stanford, and West Virginia), but the teams that I lost had a big impact. It's rough. It just goes to show you that there isn't a foolproof way to predict something as inherently chaotic as the NCAA basketball tournament. I'm still doing better than the wife (35-13 to her 33-15), but I'd be surprised if she doesn't end up outperforming me. Next year, when you see my article come up about my failsafe predictions for March Madness, cut straight to the chase and ask who my wife has winning it all. (She picked Tennessee, incidentally.)
AP Photo - Chuck Burton
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