Average Person's Guide to Giving You The Best Chance To Win Your NCAA Tournament Pool But You Probably Won't Anyway

I haven't watched most of the college basketball season. Chances are that if you're reading this post, you probably haven't, either. But, you're reading it because you know me and you're going to fill out a NCAA bracket, so why not read what one more person has to say? While the experts will give you their choices and analyze these current teams, I'll give you my expert opinion, which is likely just as good as theirs with how these tournaments turn out every year. So, here it is, my “Average Person's Guide to Giving You The Best Chance To Win Your NCAA Tournament Pool But You Probably Won't Anyway.”

 Hi ladies, I'm a bracketologist!

1. Pick teams with a history.

You know the teams that have won the championship before, and over the past decade, it's been a lot of familiar names multiple times: Duke, Connecticut (but, this year, oops!), Florida, Michigan State, North Carolina. As long as these teams are having good years, they should be locks to guarantee you at least early round points (not so much North Carolina, but definitely Duke. There's no way Duke loses in the first round again, is there?!)

2. Pick the coaches

I have no idea why, but there are just some coaches who know how to coach in the NCAA Tournament regardless of how good their team is. Some of them are the same people who coach the teams above: Kryzyzewski (Duke), Izzo (Michigan State), Donovan (Florida), and all of the previous teams are alluring picks in this tournament. There are even the new coaches like Shaka Smart (VCU) and Brad Stevens (Butler) who know how to make the wins happen.

3. Don't fall for the “trap” teams (whoever they are).

Every year, the tournament has them. They are teams that have either been seeded better than they should be or they made a run at their conference tournament and that was the only thing that you watched this season, so now you're salivating over them. Biggest traps this year: Gonzaga (#1 seed with a history of disappointment), Miami (I'm selling on their season/ACC Championship win), Michigan (#4 seed doesn't even show how much they seem to have fallen apart). Remember, I don't really know anything, and you may have your own trap teams in mind, but they're out there.

4. There are going to be upsets, silly.

This is a guarantee. Some weirdo team will end up in the Sweet 16. Your guess is as good as mine, and I didn't feel good about any of the weirdo teams to actually pick this one, so I'm guaranteed one wrong in the sweet 16. Oregon and California are appealing, but they're not weird enough. Belmont and South Dakota State sound nice, but really? I'm going to ride Belmont to the Sweet 16? Why can't Akron be playing any other team but VCU? I love my MAC teams to the Sweet 16!

5. Do not put too much money into your pool.

The NCAA Tournament is the most fun that you can have in sports, and the worst fun that you can have if you actually wish to gamble.

So, based off these five rules I just made up now, I'm putting $5 into a pool and picking the Duke Blue Devils to win it all (a team I've strangely never picked before)!

Final Four: Duke, Ohio State, Florida, Indiana

Biggest Upsets: (12) California, (12) Oregon

Middles to watch for: (5) VCU, (6) Butler, (6) Arizona, (9) Villanova, (9) Wichita State

I'm really looking forward to seeing how wrong I am, and I'm not sure if I even followed my own rules. Enjoy the tournament!