The Peach Basket: Pick the March Madness Champion With This One Easy Trick!*
*Offer not valid in most US jurisdictions and Canadian provinces
Do you want to win your office bracket competition? Well, I can't really help you with that. Too many variables, and regardless: some HR dude named Brent is going to beat you based solely off of his mascot-based picks. But what I can do is give you a mathematical-ish system that has identified the elite pool of potential March Madness champions correctly for 20 of the last 24 tournaments!
If you want the longer background to this thing, hit the link below. We'll see you below the fold.
AlmaOtter
Hi! You didn't read the link, did you? Dammit.
Anyways, OTR's own Peach Basket metric says thus: based on 25 years of KenPom data, nearly every single March Madness champion (technically, all but four) have had a pre-tournament offensive ranking of 15 or better and a combined offensive and defensive ranking of 40 or lower. Offense 15 or better, Offense+Defense 40 or better. Got it?
Since 2001, there have been 149 Basket teams across 24 tournaments. And here's how they've done.
Dang, that's pretty good! A 1/3 chance to make the Final Four is remarkable. And better than a coin flip odds to get to the second weekend too.
With all that preamble finally out of the way, which teams are in the Basket for this tournament? And which ones have a clear path to the Final Four?
All four #1 seeds are there, as are #2 seeds Houston and Purdue. Illinois is the lone #3 seed, and then #5 Vandy just made the cut. Unfortunately for Illini fans like myself, the South region has 4 of the 8 Basket teams in it! Michigan and Duke are the sole Basket teams in the Midwest and the East, unfortunately. And Arizona and Purdue share the West, but are on opposite sides of the region.
What does all of that mean? No idea! But unless something truly bizarre and ahistorical occurs, we do know one thing: One of those eight teams will win this tournament.
(God, I hope it's not Duke.)
