Will's NCAA tournament picks

I'm sure it's clear from many blog posts that Will is a sports fan. He has really been getting caught up in "hoop ball" lately - now that the sun is finally coming out, one of his favorite outdoor activities is to play on his 3-foot basketball hoop that we got him for his birthday.

Anyway, Erin and I also get pretty excited for the NCAA tournament each year - THE TOURNEY STARTS TODAY - and there's usually some pretty serious competition between the two of us with the brackets we fill out. Usually we bet a "night out" - where the person with the winning bracket gets to choose every activity for an evening, without argument from the losing party. This can be dangerous for me, as it might mean having to watch High School Musical. Fortunately I always win :)

Last year Will got in on the excitement of the tournament as well, and so this year we had him fill out his own tournament bracket. This was done via two methods which we alternated between rounds: 1) asking him who he thought would win and verbally announcing the team names, or 2) showing him the teams on paper, without reading them, and asking him who he thought would win. For method 1, he almost always picked the team names that he recognized (Michigan, Wisconsin) or could pronounce more easily. If they were about equally difficult for him to pronounce, he would usually just take a stab at saying the second team we read to him (so he had to randomize the order). For method 2, he would usually pick the team that had more capital letters in the name, and schools that "have a double" - had a 'W' in them - always trumped the other schools. Anyway, here is Will's bracket below. If he beats Erin or I (which would be hilarious), or BOTH of us - we'll probably end up eating candy for dinner and playing 3 straight hours of Mario Race. I'll sure to keep everyone updated with his score.



PS Will beating Erin or I is not that far-fetched. As I'm sure many of you are aware, these tournaments can go completely crazy sometimes, and you never know - 14-seed American could conceivably end up in the championship game. We have done similar bracket picks with our cat Duke in the past (put a toy or treat on each team name, see which one he goes for and write in that team) - and there have been some very close calls with Duke almost beating Erin!