There are many ways to come up with your picks for the NCAA Tournament. Some people throw darts. Some go by mascots (who would win in a fight to the death between a Banana Slug and a Chanticleer). Others go by uniform colors. People tend to pick schools near them, or one’s that they or their friends attended. There are some people who actually do research, study the players and coaches, and think that this will give them an edge when making their picks. Some look at what the experts have to say.

Matt’s Picks

In the past, I’ve come in second in a lot of brackets. I’ve done the research, picked the right early round upsets, and had big leads going into the last weekend a number of times.

Not this year. No more.

This year, I’m turning to the job of picking the tournament over to my son Matt. Mind you, he doesn’t work for free. He got some M&M’s out of the deal.

I’ll warn you, he picked a lot of upsets, and his eventual champion based on the fact that he found “Butler” to be an exceptionally silly name.

If we get the tournament he picked, we’re going to see a lot of history this year. No #16 seed has ever beaten a #1 seed. My boy has it happening twice. He’s got Vermont going to the Elite 8. I’m assuming that my memory of the Taylor Coppenrath-led upset of Syracuse in ’05 was passed genetically. He’s got URI getting to the Sweet 16. He’s got his great-grandfather’s Providence College Friars getting past both USC and SMU.

He’s got three of the four #2 seeds going down in the first round. Even though he’s never sat through a complete college basketball game, he’s come with the innate dislike of Duke, picking them to lose to Troy. He’s got Princeton over Notre Dame – channeling a love for backdoor passes and Pete Carril’s legacy from the ether.

In case you weren’t keeping track, here’s Matt’s bracket.