Bracket Advice

I never win my pool, so take this with a grain of salt. My new strategy this year is to pick more chalk, and pay attention to a new angle for me: tip-off time.

For example, Maryland plays at 12:20p on Thursday in eastern time. I can't remember the last time we played that early. I checked, the last 2p was Jan. 13 against Clemson and the last 1p was December 31 against Siena. Both games were at home. The only recent tip-off time we had prior to 3p was the first round of the ACC Tournament...yeah...

I can't find the start times for Davidson's games, except that their last regular game was at 1p. They've almost certainly played more recently than we have. They also have the added "benefit" of being rightly pissed that their 48 RPI earned them a 13 seed. The 10, 11 and 12 seeds in the Midwest actually have worse RPIs.

So we'll be rusty, playing too early in the day, and playing a pissed-off team on a neutral court. We'll still win (Duke 75, Davidson 47 back on Nov. 25), but don't be surprised if we look ugly doing it.