It’s sort of a yearly tradition for my family to fill out our brackets every March and see who wins the most games. Though I enjoy basketball, I’m not one to sit and watch every game on TV like my father. So, I rarely have an idea of which teams are likely to win or not, which can make filling out a bracket quite challenging. Over the years, I’ve developed some different strategies in picking my teams. First and foremost, if the team is highly ranked and is playing against a low ranked team, I always pick the higher ranked team. This goes for number 1 seeds against 16 seeds and occasionally number 2 seeds versus 15 seeds. The process gets more difficult as the teams are closer ranked to one another, like a number 8 seed and a number 9 seed. Here’s where my strategies come into play. If I’m not sure which team to pick, I go off of mundane things such as which mascot is more awesome, which school colors I like the best, or if I know someone who lives in the state that one of the schools is in. Of course, these tactics aren’t guaranteed to work every time, but I have had my successes with them (though it’s most likely luck). This year in particular was one of my best years yet! I did have some hits and misses along the way, but my bracket did better than everyone in my family, not to mention I picked the NCAA championship winner! I’m ecstatic for next year to come around so I can continue refining my strategies and hopefully I can beat my family again!