March Madness Office Pool For Dummies by IZ-Real: Not the average Joe!

What’s up peeps! What is good in your HOOD!   In my hood people are running around looking crazy and lacking focus. This usually happens in the middle of the month of March.  People who normally function at high levels, for some reason can’t get their eyes off their TV, smart phone, and bracket sheets.   There are CEOs, principals, doctors, lawyers, etc., being effected by this disease called MARCH MADNESS.   You Have secretaries putting up the MIDDLE FINGER to their boss if their college just happens to be losing dung this  time of the year.

The MADNESS is real peeps, but the good thing IZ it only lasts about 3 weeks.   In this blog I will show you people the best ways to win your office pools and collect a nice sum of money at the beginning of April.  I’m going to have the ladies of the office being looked at as SPORTS QUEENS because they won, or were very competitive in their office pool.

My record speaks for itself. I have won TONS of office pools the last 3 years.   The secret to winning office pools is picking a GOOD team that lots of people are not picking. 80% of people who do office pools pick one of the number 1 seeds to win it all, but not ME.  Sure, I do 2 pools all the time and in 1 of the pools I do the “Usual Suspects” like everyone else, and pick one of the favorites. This year the USUAL SUSPECTS are Kansas, Pittsburgh, Ohio State and Duke.  You can take it to the bank that 80% of peeps in your office pool will have one of these teams winning and lots will have at least 3 of these teams going to the Final Four.   I will go on record and say I don’t like ANY of the number 1 seeds, and I honestly don’t see more than one of them making it to the Final 4.

So now I look at the matchups and try to find a way for these teams to get knocked off. I can see 3 of these 4 teams going down before they get to the Elite 8.  The crazy part IZ I think Kansas is the weakest of the four number 1 seeds. But going by MATCHUPS, I can’t see anyway that Kansas wont make the Final 4. So ladies put down Kansas all the way to the Final 4.   Now to be safe ladies, you will also put down Ohio State to reach the Final 4 because they are going to be the team that lots of peeps pick to win. You might want to be SAFER than SORRY, but if you are a HIGH RISK person like me, take Kentucky to come out of that REGION. There won’t be too many people having Kentucky coming out of there because they are only a 4 seed. But ladies, Kentucky is HOTTTTTTT and they have one of the best tournament coaches ever in John Calipari.

So peeps, so far I have Ohio State and Kansas going to the Final 4 in my USUAL SUSPECT pool, but in my MONEY MAKING pool I have Kentucky and Kansas.  Peeps, DO NOT have Pitt going to the Final 4 or even The Elite 8.  I have Pitt getting knocked off as early as the second round to Old Dominion (nice sleeper team). If Pitt happens to get pass OD, I have them losing to Kansas State in the sweet 16.  So for my Usual Suspect Pool, I have Florida coming out of that Region, but for my MONEY MAKING Pool, I have either Kansas State or Wisconsin coming out of that region (If these two teams play I would DEF take Wisconsin, but Wisconsin has a very tough 1st round game and could lose to Belmont).

For the last Region we have the Defending Champs Duke.  Duke should easily get to the Sweet 16, and if things shape out well for them I could see them making the final 4. So for the Usual Suspect Pool, mark Duke down all the way to the final 4. But in my Money Maker, I have UCONN and the great guard, Kemba Walker, coming out.

OK, before I give you some POTENTIAL 1st round upsets, let’s recap my Final Four. USUAL SUSPECTS we have Ohio State, Kansas, Duke and Florida; and for the Money Maker we have Kansas, UCONN, Wisconsin/Kansas State, and Kentucky.

OK now we get to your 1st round picks, and LADIES there will be some upsets. To tell you the truth the 1st round really doesn’t mean that much because every round the points DOUBLE. So as long as your Final 4 teams get out of the 1st round, you’re COOOLLLLLL. So take all the Top 4 seeds in each region to advance to the 2nd round.  I only see 1 possible upset coming out of those top 4 seeds, so if you are a true RISK TAKER you can take Belmont over Wisconsin.

Now all hell breaks loose once we get to the 5 and higher seeds because there is not TOO MUCH of a difference between a 5th and 12th Seed, 6th and 11th Seed, 7th and 10th seed, and the 8th and 9th Seed. Truth be told when you’re BETTING, some of the lower seeds are favorite.  So here are some picks you might want to take in the 1st round and no worries if they lose because you don’t have them winning in the 2nd round anyway. You would only lose 1 point because REMEMBER, points DOUBLE every round.  This is not really an upset, but I have George Mason beating Villanova in the 1st round. In my MONEY MAKING Pool I also have George Mason knocking off the number 1 seed Ohio State.  Take Missouri over Cincinnati. Take Richmond over Vanderbilt, and take Michigan State over UCLA.  For the rest of the games for the 5th seed and higher, you can pretty much go with your gut feeling because I don’t see any of those teams making it to the sweet 16 anyway. For my Temple Peeps, Temple should beat Penn State and, believe it or not, have a good shot at beating the number 2 seed San Diego State.

There you have it in a nutshell peeps. If you guys are RISK TAKERS and IZ using the MONEY MAKER method, don’t get discourage if you lose, let’s say 12 out of the 32 1st round games, because you still have the ACE in the hole. That is because you are betting on a team that no one else has (i.e. KENTUCKY). Since points double every round, that one championship game is equal to the same amount as ALL the 1st round games combined. So you can be trailing by 30 points and end up winning the office pool.  For my Usual Suspect Pool I have Kansas winning it all because I’m not quite sure all the other number 1 seeds will make it that far.  If your pockets can afford it, play 2 Pools ladies and that way you will be in the hunt all the way to the END. Just imagine the look on your male co-worker’s face if you are the only one with Kentucky and they actually WIN!

People 3 years ago thought I was crazy when I picked Kansas to win it all. Damn near the whole country had North Carolina or Memphis winning it all. Sure, I got lucky with a tying buzzer beater shot to force OT in the Championship game, but I was the only one who had THE BALLS to pick Kansas to knock of the high powered Tar Heals in the Final 4, and guess what peeps? Kansas wasn’t a number 1 seed 3 years ago.

Also, 2 years ago, my Money Maker Pool didn’t work out too well, but my Usual Suspect Pool won when North Carolina CRUSHED everyone and won the Title.   Last year I SHOULD have won it all because I had Baylor knocking of Duke in the Elite 8, and the REFS TOTALLY screwed Baylor. If you don’t believe that all you have to do is watch the last 5 minutes of that game. If Baylor won that game, no matter what else happened I would have won. But, oh well! If my Aunt had balls she would be my Uncle. So I’m not going to cry over it.   So ‘til next time peeps………….

…….IZ REAl OUT!

It’s a GothamJungle thing baby…!!!

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