For basketball fans of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament:

Best time of the year for basketball viewing! Despite the big money involved and exploitation of student athletes, it’s still pretty pure, really intense competition. It’s great to see smaller schools compete favorably against larger, big money schools.

I haven’t paid real close attention to college hoops nationally this year, focusing more on regional competition.  When I decided to enter the ESPN bracket contest 45 minutes prior to the first contest yesterday, I had no clear sense of the various team profiles and strengths/weaknesses. I took ten minutes to fill out the bracket and crossed my fingers knowing that in some way it’s something of a crap shoot as it has been historically. Continue reading →