The 2017 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament starts tomorrow at noon. Our brackets are filled out and the excitement is building as the Don vs Sal competition is about to begin. Every year we enter several March Madness contests, but the true contest is between the two of us. We are both very competitive and it is not unusual for an upset in the tournament to cause a bit of an upset in the Kurjan household!
We both want to win, but we have completely different methods for filling out our brackets. Don listens to ESPN and reads everything he can about all of the teams. Neither of us are college basketball experts so we have to pay extra attention to those who are come tournament time. Don, as usual, knows the stats and all the ins and outs. I make my choices by which teams I like, don’t like, uniform colors, where my family has gone to college, etc. My way is not the preferred technique, but I have won my share of office pools!
We both took UCLA over Kent State, even though our hearts are with the Golden Flashes. Don took UCLA to the Final Four, but I have them losing to North Carolina in the Great Eight. I would gladly lose my pool to see Kent State beat UCLA and go farther in the tournament.
Don took UCLA, Kansas, Villanova and Gonzaga to the Final Four, with Kansas and Gonzaga playing in the National Championship. I have Duke, Arizona, Kansas and North Carolina in my Final Four. I picked Duke to win the championship over North Carolina. My confidence in Duke comes from my co-worker, Pennie, who knows way more about basketball than I do. Pennie is predicting Duke to go to the end due to their second half heat.
We are entered in a few pools with huge prizes – Quaker Steak and Lube has a free entry with a chance to win a 2017 Ford Mustang, or free chicken wings for a year. Our favorite pool is the one that Don’s brother-in-law, Todd, organizes and hosts for family and friends. Todd makes the pool even more fun by sending out updates after each round that include his own personal comments. We are really proud of our nephew, Noah, who won the pool last year and two years ago! That kid knows how to pick his teams!
Good luck to all. We hope to see some exciting tournament games and maybe this will be the year of The Perfect Bracket!