March Madness is almost underway, and with the games beginning soon, you’re probably scrambling to get your bracket filled out.
It’s always great to follow along for Cinderella stories and potential upsets. Maybe you don’t want to fill out a bracket, and that’s perfectly okay. The odds of getting a perfect bracket are virtually impossible, anyway.
There are plenty of alternatives you can try to a traditional bracket, like a survivor pool. However, assuming you do want to fill out a bracket, we’ve got some tips!
My pal, Charles Curtis, offered his bracket based on just 20 minutes of research. You can check out our brilliant staff’s actual predictions for March Madness, too.
But allow me to show you what a bracket would look like if we based it entirely on what would be the best-case scenario for NBA draft scouting. If you want to take a closer look and zoom in, you can click here.
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The goal here was to get as many lottery picks playing as many games as possible. Here are some takeaways:
- Arkansas is the No. 8 seed in the West and they have a tough first-round opponent with Illinois. But they also have two likely lottery picks, Nick Smith Jr. and Anthony Black, and two other potential first-rounders with Ricky Council IV and Jordan Walsh. Let me see them play as many games as possible!
- Over the last few days, we’ve heard a buzz that Alabama’s Brandon Miller has “closed the gap” on projected No. 2 overall pick Scoot Henderson. If he continues to dominate during the Big Dance, we could see actual movement at the top of the draft.
- Duke is a No. 5 seed in the East and they have one of the toughest roads to the Final Four, especially with a challenging opening game against Oral Roberts. But they have three likely first-rounders here (Dariq Whitehead, Kyle Filipowski, and Dereck Lively II) and two more draftable prospects (Tyrese Proctor and Mark Mitchell) as well.
- Jarace Walker (Houston), Keyonte George (Baylor), Cason Wallace (Kentucky), Jalen Hood-Schifino (Indiana), Colby Jones (Xavier), Jordan Hawkins (UConn), Kris Murray (Iowa), Terquavion Smith (NC State), and Julian Phillips (Tennessee) are additionally notable prospects who will be dancing.
If you’re curious about these players, you can learn more about why these prospects are the best in the tournament on our rankings published earlier this week.
My best advice when you’re filling out a bracket is that the eventual winner who will tear down the nets is almost definitely going to be one of these eight teams.
But if you’re an NBA fan and just want to see as many future NBA players play as often as possible, this is the way you need to fill out your bracket instead.
