There are plenty of ways to go about filling out your NCAA brackets. Some go with their gut, some turn to the dartboard and there even some who make their picks by mascots.The best way, perhaps, is to simulate through the tournament 2,001 times and then go from there.
That’s exactly WhatIfSports.com did, and not surprisingly, they ended up with a pretty top-heavy Final Four. In the simulation, the website ended up with all four No. 1 seeds — Ohio State, Kansas, Duke and Pitt — reaching the Final Four. From there, it was onto the national championship featuring arguably the tournament’s two best teams in Ohio State and Kansas.
According to the simulation, it was the Jayhawks cutting down the nets for the title in just over 20 percent of the 2,001 simulated brackets.
If you’re looking for upset specials, computer simulations usually aren’t going to help you out much. However, in this case, the computers did spit out a couple.
In the East bracket, the possible upset pick is No. 11 Marquette over No. 6 Xavier. Then, in the Southeast bracket, there are a couple of projected first round upsets. The computer sees the seemingly annual 12-over-5 upset coming with Utah State getting by Kansas State, in addition to No. 11 Gonzaga, toppling Steve Lavin in his St. John’s tournament debut.
Need a Cinderella team? Look no further than the Pac-10 champions, the Washington Huskies. They were projected to topple both Syracuse and North Carolina in the East region on their way to the Elite Eight, before bowing out to eventual national runner-up Ohio State.
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