Picking games for March Madness is tough, but there are systems many people swear by in order to come out with the best possible picks to give themselves a chance to win their bracket contest.
Here are some tips, tricks, and other information help you make the best picks for your March Madness brackets, whether you are a newcomer or a casual fan and up:
NCAA Tournament March Madness Bracket Tips
These are aspects of each team and other tips you can use to predict the winners as well as winning strategies for your bracket and office pool.
Pick the big winners first-
If you like a really good team like Pittsburgh for example this year to go extremely far, or maybe North Carolina, go ahead and pencil them into your bracket and put them as far as you think they'll go without looking at the matchups. Do this with a good 5-6 teams that you happen to really like and don't just go by seeds in the bracket.
Sometimes a 3 seed might be playing much better going into the tournament than a 2 seed for example. Don't get too caught up in the rankings when picking your bracket.
Don't sweat minor seed differences
A 10 over a 7 is not an upset by any means. Even a 5-12 game is not an upset if the 12 wins in many peoples' books. There's a reason why they call it March Madness.
Look for the shaky teams
Every year there are some teams that played poorly down the stretch or were exposed in conference play when they played tougher schedules, etc. Some teams padded their records with easy competition. Look hard for fatal flaws in teams and don't take them any farther than one round tops.
USA Today NCAA Team Capsules
USA Today offers a great special section on NCAA Tournament teams with capsules to help you fill out your bracket. It comes out the Monday after Selection Sunday.
Look at the leading scorers and other stat leaders for each team and see how they break down against their opponents.
If they're facing a good defensive team for example you want a team of balanced scorers. If a team has a monster inside and the opposing team starts a 6'7 center, then you should lean toward the team with the big guy. There are tons of matchups that can factor into your bracket picks, it's up to you to find them.
In the NCAA Tournament, guards control the tempo and make most of the big plays.
The teams with the best guards usually come out on top in the tournament. All the big guys have to do is stay out of foul trouble and play their opponents to a standstill.
In a matchup of teams with great guards vs. a team with great post players, in most cases the guard-based team will win. This is not a cut-and-dry tip for your bracket but more of a preference and possible tie-breaker among really good teams that are hard to choose from.
