Could the Mizzou Tigers Win March Madness???

On Sunday night, I was thrilled that I picked 14 of the teams advancing to the Sweet 16. Upon further review however, I recognize that I still came up short. I missed about 8 picks in the first two rounds, which as it turns out is only ok. I couldn't imagine picking every game last weekend (Cleveland State???) much less throughout the tournament, especially considering the long odds behind maintaining the perfect bracket:

Want to make sure you get 100% on your office betting pool? You’ve just got to fill out 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 brackets. Yes, that’s 18.5 quintillion. Even if every person on earth filled out a different bracket, the odds are still remarkably small that any one bracket would be perfect. (link)

Quintillion. Wow.

I keep my brackets via CBS Sportsline on Facebook, so it's easy to see who beat me and the fact of the matter is that a good many folks did. As of the start of the second round, I rank #4,570 out of more than 100,000 participants. Impressively, at the top of the standings, only one person in the entire pool was perfect in their pursuit of bracket nirvana.

That's right, only one person: Hank Sherman. That's it, that's the list! Hank's the lone bracketologist who nailed his picks perfectly (48/48) through the first weekend of The NCAA tourney.

If you don't believe me, here's the proof: (link)



I'll graciously admit defeat, especially to someone that picked 48 winners. Thankfully, Facebook's first weekend champion took the time to answer some of Morganobrien.com's questions about how he pitched the perfect game through the topsy-turvy first weekend of the tourney.

1- Where are you from/how old are you/what do you do/where do you go to school?

I grew up in Richmond, Missouri a small town about 45 minutes east of Kansas City. Now I'm now a 21 yr old student at MU in Columbia.

2- How would you characterize your college basketball prowess (expert, casual follower, etc)?

I would rank it somewhere between obsessed and casual following, more towards casual. My interest grows when the Missouri Tigers play well.

3- Did you really think Mizzou had a shot at the beginning or was that tongue in cheek? If you really like them, what in particular made you think that they had it in them to make the run?

I've watched Mizzou dismantle teams all year. We've had a few embarrassing losses but our basketball team, I believe, can play with the best teams in the nation. Their defensive capabilities have amazed me all year.

4- How did your picks hold up last year?

Last year I think I had around 30 to 35 correct picks out of 64.

5- What have you learned over the course of the past four days that you'll use in future tournaments?

The momentum of a team coming into the tournament was a pretty good indicator of me in how they would perform the first round.

6- Do you have any other talents?

Yeah, I play a small handful of instruments and occasionally write music.

7- Have any of your friends or family had insights into your picking prowess over the past four days--has anyone said anything worth mentioning?

My brother is basically the co-author of my bracket. We watched the selection show together. I just gave him my gut reaction to each match-up and he gave his. Surprisingly, most of our predictions were the same, although he thought I was stupid for choosing Mizzou to win it out.

8- Is Mizzou your favorite team? Who else do you follow?

I've been a Mizzou fan ever since I was a little kid. I also try to keep up on the kU jayhawks because their our main rival. I used to watch the SMS, now Missouri State, bears when I was growing up.

9- Did you play basketball at any level?

I played in the area kids league. I stopped in middle school for band. It took as much practice to play the trombone as it did to play basketball.

10- Did any games have you nervous--eg, the Mizzou game today?

The Miz/Marq game the other day had me going crazy.
I'll probably be sweating each game from now on because the 16 teams left in the tournament are essentially on the same level skill-wise.
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It will be interesting following the rest of Hank's run--even he thinks it will be difficult to hold on the lead through "One Shining Moment". We'll have to see if the longshot Missouri Tigers win the NCAA title--with a little of the Sherman magic, they certainly seem like a much more reasonable pick now than a week ago, don't they?

Here's to March Madness, and congrats to Hank (although I hope that he's wrong and the Tarheels prevail).