How to pick your March Madness winners

If you think things don't get heated during March Madness, just ask the St. Joes Eagle's coach Phil Martelli and CBS broadcaster Billy Packer. Packer ripped the Eagles before and after they received a number one seed, and went a little overboard in his criticism of the selection committee's choice. The feud picked up steam as Martelli nearly challenged Packer to fight in the schoolyard. Just wait until Packer calls one of St. Joe's games -- that should be awkward.

Despite an overtime loss to the Maryland Terrapins in the final of the ACC Tournament, the Duke Blue Devils still received a number one seed in one of the other brackets. Yet, with the loss, they were bumped down from the first number one position. The Kentucky Wildcats slipped in to grab the overall number one seed, while the Stanford Cardinal nabbed the third number one slot. This only matters if all four number one seeds get to the final four, so that the one plays the four, and the two plays the three.

Looking at Duke's Atlanta bracket, the region is stacked with talented teams. When the North Carolina Tarheels, Duke's mortal enemies, are placed as a sixth seed in their bracket, you can see this portion has the potential for some great games. This region may also have the strongest two seed in Mississippi St. Bulldogs, along with the Texas Longhorns (third seed), Cincinnati Bearcats (fourth seed), and a great first round match-up between the Xavier Musketeers (seventh seed) and Rick Pitino's Cardinals of Louisville (tenth seed).

Here are a few overall tips for picking your brackets. First of all, there has never been a 1-16 upset, so don't pick it. No matter how close a Cinderella comes, a la the Holy Cross Crusaders or Princeton Tigers, they will not beat a top seeded team.

Don't try and pick a 2-15 upset either. Despite the occasional Hampton upset, the odds of this happening are slim to none, as well.

Here is where it starts getting interesting. With the 3-14 and 4-13, it is inevitable that one of the higher seeds in these match-ups will lose. Just don't go looking for the upsets when they aren't there. Remember if you pick an upset in one of these games and it doesn't happen, that three or four seed could easily go on for two more rounds and burn you.

Next, the dreaded 5-12 game is one of the biggest upset match-ups every year. Many times the 12 seeds are some of the last at-large teams to get invited to the tournament, so they are very dangerous. Just look at this year's 12 seeds. The Manhattan Jaspers (East Rutherford), BYU Cougars (Phoenix), and the Murray St. Racers (Atlanta) could all easily upset their opponents. Each of these 12 seeds is playing a middle of the pack major conference team that could flame out in the first round.

Late Monday night the Associated Press reported that two key members of the Murray St. basketball team, juniors Kelvin Brown and Adam Chiles, were arrested on drug charges. Their status remained unknown as of Tuesday morning in terms of their involvement in Friday's game against the Illinois Illini. So for those who thought that Murray St. was a potential 5-12 upset, don't count on the Racers without their leading rebounder and starting point guard.

The 6-11 contests are just as unpredictable this year. Just look at this year's 11 seeds: the Utah Utes, Richmond Spiders, Western Michigan Broncos, and the Air Force Falcons. They all look primed to knock off their higher seeded opponents.

With the 7-10 and 8-9 games, it is basically a toss up. Just flip a coin or if you have a real gut feeling about one team, go with it. There is no rhyme or reason to the outcome of these games.



Here are the final tips:

1. Don't pick all the top seeds to go to the final four -- most years only one of the four number ones ends up going.

2. Look for where teams are playing, and if they are close to a spot where they would receive a large amount of fan support.

3. See who has entered the tournament hot. Winning conference tournaments doesn't mean everything, but a team that's on a roll can many times carry that momentum late into March.