Are You Ready For March Madness?

March 4, 2010 at 3:26 pm · Filed under march madness

It’s getting to be about that time again.  Time for one of the most anticipated sporting events of the year.  Yes, we’re talking about the annual NCAA basketball tournament.  It’s undoubtedly the biggest prize in college basketball, as well as being some of the most entertaining sports that fans will get to enjoy all year.  Sure, the pros are fun to watch, but they sometimes seem to lack the passion that only college aged players, fans, and cheerleaders can generate.  It’s not really about the money for these guys and gals (at least not yet), and more about prestige, proving their worth, and winning one for the old alma mater.  It’s about as close to pure competitive sports for the sake of the game you’ll find on national television.  I for one can hardly wait.

The NCAA tournament, is a bracket based tournament, and that means teams need to be seed on each side of the bracket.  There are approximately 1200 or so college teams that are eligible to compete under NCAA rules.  There are actually three divisions within the March madness tourney, and they each play their own tournament.  Division I, II and III schools participate in their individual division tournament.  Not everybody realizes that there are that many tournaments going on, since most of the televised games come from the division I schools where most of the premier players are.  Because there are so many teams in each division (over 300 in division I), it would be inconceivable for them to play a regular season with the top teams advancing to the NCAA championships.

That’s not to say, that their regular season play doesn’t count for something though.  There is a panel of adjudicators, made up of various leaders in the NCAA basketball community that decide which teams play.  Teams that win their individual conference championships (approximately 50% of the teams required), and the rest are pick by the adjudicators.  They take into account, the record of the individual teams during the regular season play.  As well, they have to take into account who they beat, who they lost to, road wins/losses,  and RPI scoring.  The results are announced on television, during “Selection Sunday”.

Once that’s done, then the real fun begins.  All the speculation leading up to the tournament is now replaced with every expert and expert-wanna-be making the March madness picks. It’s a lot of fun at this point, since it’s really just a numbers game.  Many of these teams haven’t even played each other during the year, so the lineup is decided on who looks better on paper.  And we all know, that looking good on paper is not always the same when it comes to performing under the lights on court.

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Vertical Jump Drills to Increase Vertical Jump

February 18, 2010 at 7:23 am · Filed under Basketball Training

There are many simple ways that can be used by athletes through which they can increase their vertical jump height. They need to carry out some simple Read the rest of this entry »

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What Is A Bracket Buster?

February 17, 2010 at 7:39 pm · Filed under Bracket Busters

If you’ve never watched college basketball before, and heard the term “Bracket Buster”, you’d probably be left wondering exactly what that was.  Even if you are a fan of college basketball, you may be left wondering exactly what a bracket buster was.  But if you think about it for a few minutes, you’ll probably come up with a pretty good guess.  A bracket buster, is a term that describes a college basketball team that has the potential to beat one of the Division I mens basketball teams during the NCAA tournament.  When the schedule is set up for the tournament, they are layed out in bracket format.  Kind of like a draw tournament.

If you take a look at the image accompanying this entry, you’ll see a shot of a bracket someone has been working on.  On the right and left side of the sheet, are the teams that will be playing in the tournament.  As a team wins it’s game, it is moved forward into the next bracket towards the center.  In this photo, someone has filled in who they think are the most likely teams to win their brackets, and move forward to the championship game at the center.

When a team that is a big underdog actually wins it’s game, and moves on, it is referred to as a bracket buster.  As that team has upset the most likely winner and in a sense has “broken” the bracket of how everyone else thought it would be played out.  For those that like to gamble, this is a big deal, as it can change the odds for other teams in the tourney.  I personally think it fun when a bracket buster emerges, as that’s what makes sport exciting.  No matter what sport your watching.  But especially in emotionally charged college basketball games.  We all like to root for the underdog don’t we, and it’s incredibly exciting (or heartbreaking depending on your perspective) when it happens.

I’m personally not a big gambler, so I rarely have money riding on these games.  I usually just enjoy watching them, because the players are so jacked up about the whole affair.  While they often have incredible control of their skills, being so young, the same can’t be said of their emotions.  With the impending arrival of the NCAA next month during “March Madness”, I’m sure we’ll get to see some real bracket busters in action.  At least, I sure hope we do.

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