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Some last minute tips for your 2011 NCAA basketball tournament bracket

Wilson NCAA Men's Basketball 2011 Final Four Bracket Basketball
Wilson NCAA Men’s Basketball 2011 Final Four Bracket Basketball

For college basketball fans, it’s the week that matters.  When office workers everywhere stop pretending to do work when filling out their brackets and start pretending to do work while sneaking in a mini-TV to hide under their desks so they don’t miss a minute of CBS’s coverage.

This is one benefit of the switch to digital TV, that you won’t find as many portable TV sets hiding at the office as you used to — but there’s always the Internet, so as long as your network administrator hasn’t blocked access to the streaming video websites, you should be good.

So a few weeks ago, Web Watch shared some TIPS FOR FILLING OUT YOUR 2011 BASKETBALL BRACKET.  Since then, some additional information has come out that we thought we’d share with you. 

NBC Sports has their TEN TIPS TO WINNING YOUR TOURNAMENT POOL, which include these:

  • Look for teams that have at least one McDonald’s All-American.   This means don’t pick Purdue or Notre Dame to win it all, but maybe stick with Duke or North Carolina
  • As Web Watch has already pointed out, stay away from picking a #15 or #16 seed to win any game. The odds are against you.   On the other hand, picking a #12 to beat a #5 is often worthwhile
  • Don’t worry about who won their conference tournament.  Think about how the team did over the course of the season instead.
  • Always have at least one #1 in your Final Four… but don’t go crazy and have your Final Four be all #1 seeds

The Star-Telegraph wrote about CHOOSING WISELY WHILE FILLING OUT YOUR NCAA BRACKET with these tips:

  • Don’t pick UConn or Pitt to make it deep in the tourney
  • Don’t pick your alma mater.
  • Maybe Old Dominion is a great underdog

Of course, there’s always these SIMPLE STEPS TO FILLING OUT A WINNING BRACKET:

  • Don’t worry about making your bracket perfect.  The goal to winning your pool is to have more points than everyone else.  Depending on how your pool is setup, you may be better off having a great 1st and 2nd round – or you do better by having just one or two teams going deep into the bracket.  Know your pool’s rules, and exploit them to the best of your ability
  • Looking for an upset pick?  Look at the #10 vs #7 matchup.
  • Don’t fill out more than one bracket – you’ll end up looking like you don’t know what you’re doing.  Pick one, and stick with it

The Quincy Herald-Whig had this ADVICE FOR YOUR NCAA OFFICE POOL:

  • Don’t pick too many upsets.
  • Try to take all four #1 seeds to the Sweet 16.
  • Don’t overthink teams from the Mountain West or Ivy League.  More often than not, you’ll be burned

Here are some teams that Bleacher Report says ARE RISING or FALLING HEADING INTO THE TOURNAMENT:

  • Rising: Syracuse
  • Falling: Villanova
  • Rising: Alabama
  • Falling: UGA
  • Rising: UConn