As the official sports drink of the NCAA Tournament, Powerade teamed up with CBS yesterday to offer a last-minute cram session to help all the frantic bracketeers make sense of March Madness. A panel of bracket experts – led by college basketball analyst Greg Anthony – held one-on-one bracket consultations for visitors, while Powerade unveiled its “ION4-Point Performance Ranking System,” a customized ranking system using four key elements essential to teams’ success in the tournament. But if you’re looking for a quick fix, here are the top four bracket tips that Anthony preaches:
Don’t Just Look At The Last Game: “You have to remember that a season is based on a whole season, you have to look at the whole body of work.” Veteran teams can get hot quickly even if they lost in their conference tournament because they don’t have confidence issues.
Balance, Balance, Balance: Anthony likes Ohio State to win it all. “They are the most versatile team out there; they played a tough season and only lost two games. They are really good, big but versatile; they can play any style of basketball.”
It’s Not All About The Name: Some traditional powers aren’t fundamentally built. “Michigan State is a jump shooting team that can’t shoot.” Memphis, on the other hand, Anthony believes is a team of freshman that has shown vast improvement over the year and is peaking at the right time.
East Coast Bias Is Real: In the Southeast region, Anthony has Gonzaga and UCLA in the Sweet Sixteen. “Gonzaga dealt with injuries early and now they have a nice run set up for them and UCLA plays in an underrated conference.” Washington is another West Coast team that Anthony likes.
What do you think?
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