Spencer Wagen / 1600ESPN
There are a bunch of different ways to fill out an NCAA Tournament bracket. Some just go with “chalk” and advance the top seeds. Some people pour through mountains of stats and analyze the matchups to pick a perfect bracket and others pick based on which teams have the best colors or coolest mascots.
No matter how you fill out a bracket, it’s one of the best times of the year as a sports fan because you get to make your picks and then watch it all unfold right in front of you. Four days in a row of wall-to-wall college hoops is must-watch TV and can lead to lots of joy and plenty of heartbreak — especially if your upset pick doesn’t materialize or your favorite team is on the wrong side of an upset.
For me, my bracket methodology is simple. I fill out a bracket with my real picks and then have a little fun with what I like to call the “Flip-a-Coin Bracket Spectacular.” I’ve been doing the flip-a-coin bracket for as long as I can remember; it caught steam in college and has continued since then. The coin bracket is almost never correct, so don’t expect to win your office pool if you follow my method, but if you even come close, I do expect (demand?) a share of your winnings. Does that sound fair?
With this year’s bracket, I’ll be honest, I was kind of disappointed in the coin at first but things got crazy as the flipping went on. This exercise is not supposed to result in all upsets, or all of the top-seeds advancing, but a happy medium of the two. Over the years I’ve come to expect craziness with this method, and when I don’t get that, it’s a little disappointing.
This year, the left side of the bracket was pretty chalky, with Auburn and Michigan State making it to the Elite Eight in the South Region, Florida earning a Sweet 16 berth and the two-seed St. John’s making it to the Elite Eight in the West. The right side of the bracket was full of chaos this year, with two 16-seeds making runs to the Sweet 16 and a 12-seed getting to the Final Four.
All told, the coin picked a Final Four of Auburn, Colorado State, Liberty and UCLA, and advanced the Rams and Bruins to the championship game. This year, the coin picked Colorado State to cut down the nets in San Antonio, which would be big news for CSU head coach Niko Medved, whose name has been linked to the open head coaching job at Minnesota. A national championship predicted by flipping a coin should land him that job in an instant, right?
Putting all loose change back in my pocket, I feel like this year’s tournament is one where it’s hard not to pick the top seeds to go far. Just writing that makes me cringe and second guess myself, but if I were to pick a national champion today, I would lean toward someone out of the SEC. Auburn has been incredible all year, Florida has been really impressive, and you can’t count out a team like Alabama, even if there are concerns about Grant Nelson’s health as the tournament begins.
For my championship pick, I went with the two teams that I feel have been the best teams all season, Auburn and Duke, with Auburn edging Duke to win the title. If Cooper Flagg is back to full strength, I feel like the Blue Devils could very easily win the title, but I’ll go with the Tigers in this case.
Spencer Wagen is the host of “Spencer on Sports,” weekdays from 4-6 p.m. on 1600 ESPN. You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @SWOnTheRadio.
