It is time to fill out that NCAA Tournament bracket for the office pool, which definitely won't have wagering because that would be illegal.
More from WholeHogSports
http://arkansasonli…">March Mania Bracket Challenge
Last year, Troy Schulte -- who is in Denver now covering the UALR Trojans -- picked Duke to win it all, and he would have won a decent-sized office pool here if wagering was legal.
Anyway, a few things to note as you prepare to participate as a good sport (who would pay the entry fee if there was one) in the office pool or perhaps on WholeHogSports.com.
First, a No. 16 seed has never, ever beaten a No. 1 seed, so just advance Kansas, North Carolina, Virginia and Oregon to the second round.
Incidentally, Oregon's Dana Altman is the only head coach in this year's NCAA Tournament who was a head coach at Arkansas, albeit for just a few hours. After the announcement and a dinner with former Chancellor John White -- with Altman's high school-aged daughter bawling her eyes out about leaving her friends -- Altman quickly decided to return to Creighton.
Only seven times has a No. 15 seed beat a No. 2, although that has happened three times since 2012. However, advance all the No. 2s this year. There are a lot of conference tournament winners in the field that couldn't win their regular season, so this field is watered down.
A No. 14 seed has beaten a No. 3 seed 14 times, including each of the past three tournaments. UALR was a No. 13 seed in 1986 when it beat No. 4 Notre Dame, but that was not an upset. The Trojans won it more easily than the 90-83 score indicated.
There have been 25 No. 13 seeds beat a No. 4 seed, the last being in 2013 when LaSalle stunned Kansas State.
See the trend here? It is called parity, and when you get to the No. 5 seeds, they have been knocked out of the tournament 44 times by No. 12 seeds, including three times in the 2014 tournament. All No. 5 seeds survived in 2015.
So if you are looking for a reason to pick UALR over Purdue, there it is. That and the Trojans could present some trouble for the Boilermakers, who are tall and deep but struggled against a 2-2-1 zone press, one of many defenses Chris Beard has in his arsenal.
Don't worry too much about Tulsa. It should lose to Michigan tonight. Most experts have questioned how the Golden Hurricane made it into the field to begin with, and Coach Frank Haith's string of good fortune continues: He has gotten out of town at Miami and Missouri right in front of an NCAA posse, which punished the schools for various infractions.
Another team that may not make it out of the first round is No. 10 Syracuse. It is almost as if the selection committee was using old information for the historically good basketball program, but the Orange had an RPI of 72 -- the highest of any at-large team. The Orange have an overall record of 19-13 and 3-8 on the road.
A few sleepers to consider are West Virginia, which is tough and playing its best basketball of the season; Wisconsin, just a physically tough team; UConn, well coached and tournament tough; and last, but definitely not least, California, a young team that has two possible NBA lottery picks.
A couple of veteran teams are Texas A&M and Miami, but the Aggies could face arch-rival Texas in a second-round game. If they meet, throw out the record books.
The best defensive team may be Xavier.
The main thing about filling out a bracket is to have fun. The odds of hitting a perfect bracket is 9.2 quintillion to one.
Expect upsets from among the Nos. 10, 11 and 12 seeds, but remember there is a reason that the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and Pac 12 are so well represented.
This was a season of parity, but the best players and coaches usually win.
Sports on 03/16/2016