March Madness, Post-Busted Brackets

Kansas Jayhawks Open Practice from Opening Rounds of March Madness, 2016

Kansas Jayhawks Open Practice from Opening Rounds of March Madness, 2016

By this point in March Madness, it is safe to say all but a few brackets are busted. On ESPN’s Tournament Challenge, none of the 18.8 million brackets submitted are still perfect. Only a total of 18 brackets even have the Sweet 16 predicted correctly.

With such small odds of picking a perfect bracket (1 in 9.2 quadrillion), some De Soto High School students have decided to bet on individual players instead. Junior Connor Kmiecik participates in what he dubs the “Player Draft.”

In the “Player Draft,” each student is partnered with a parent, and they draft players based on expected total point production. Ignore rebounds, assists and blocks, because this contest is only determined by the total points a player scores in the tournament.

“We draft just like Fantasy leagues, just picking in order, then wrapping around like a snake style draft,” Kmiecik said.

For those fantasy basketball fans that don’t want to commit to a 20 plus week schedule of Fantasy NBA, this format can offer a similar experience for just three weeks.

“Josh Hart [of Villanova, who was eliminated in the second round] was taken first overall, and now his team is out. That kind of shows how hard this draft is with the tournament being single-elimination,” Kmiecik said

The points are added up throughout the tournament, so players on teams that get out early are of lower value than players on teams that make a deep run. That makes even role players on the best teams more useful than amazing players on a bad team.

“Somehow Frank [Mason III, senior guard for The University of Kansas] was taken sixth, right before us. He’s looking like the best pick now,” Kmiecik said.

If your bracket is somehow still intact, congratulations. However, if yours is like the rest of ours, you may want to consider a player draft next year.