Final Four Tourney Picks

 

It’s the last weekend of March Madness. Three more games and three more opportunities to incorrectly predict the winners. We have an entirely new betting approach heading into Final Four. Do the opposite. Yes, we are taking the advice of George Constanza, "If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right,” - our new mantra.

Loyola IL (11) v. Michigan (3)
Loyola IL is the Cinderella of the tourney. They even have the best cheerleader in the country, Sister Jean. An 11 seed has never advanced to the finals. Instincts says this Cinderella is out of steam. Our March Madness gut instincts are always wrong. This year, 16 seeds can beat 1 seeds and 11 seeds can advance to the finals - especially with a higher power and a Sister Jean bobblehead cheering them along. Loyola marches on.

Kansas (2) v. Villanova (1)
No idea. Kansas beat Duke. We thought Duke was the best team in the tourney because until last week, no one could contend with Marvin Bagley and Duke’s parade of future NBA first round draft picks. But then Kansas tripped them up and rained on their parade. Sorry Grayson, had to do it. Nova chucks up the ‘3 and is proven in the spotlight (See Kris Jenkins’ 2014 dagger 3). Our instinct says Kansas loses because they peaked after their historic win against Duke and they are also historic tourney underperformers (fourteen straight Big 12 Championships under Self, one national title - sort of like the Atlanta Braves of the 1990s). Sticking to our mantra and doing the opposite, we are picking Kansas.